Diseases treated

Non-malignant disease:

• aplastic anaemia - results in disease free survival in more than 50% of patients
• thalassaemia
• sickle cell anaemia
• immunodeficiency diseases - including severe combined immunodeficiency disease, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
• Gaucher's disease

Malignant disease:

• acute myeloid leukaemia - high dose chemotherapy or radiotherapy and BMT is potentially curative; allogeneic is generally preferred
• acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - as standard intensive chemotherapy is so effective, BMT is reserved for special situations such as Philadelphia positive ALL. Allogeneic is usually preferred, as it is associated with a lower rate of relapse
• chronic myeloid leukaemia - with the introduction of imatinib, allogeneic stem cell transplantation is no longer considered as the first line treatment method in patients with chronic phase of CML (1)
• chronic lymphocytic leukaemia - allogeneic BMT preferred
• multiple myeloma - controversial as to whether allogeneic or autologous is the best; standard chemotherapy is rarely curative

Note that BMT is not considered part of standard therapy in the treatment of CLL or multiple myeloma.

Reference:

• 1. O'Brien S et al. NCCN clinical practice guidelines in oncology: chronic myelogenous leukemia. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2009;7(9):984-1023.