Complications remain frequent after bone marrow transplantation in patients with sickle cell disease

Although the majority of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) who underwent bone marrow transplantation (BMT) remained vaso‐occlusive crises (VOCs)‐free over 2 years, transplant‐related complications remained high, according to a study.

In this cohort study of 204 patients with SCD who underwent BMT, US Medicaid claims data were used to analyze the rates of VOCs and other complications after BMT.

Over a median follow-up of 2.1 years, the overall VOC rate was 0.99 per person‐year, with 67.6% (138/204) of patients remaining VOCs-free. The mortality rate was 1.7 per 100 person‐years. Transplant‐related complications occurred in 55.4% (113/204) of patients with an incidence rate of 38.2 per 100 person‐years and 23% of patients had GvHD with an incidence rate of 8.0 per 100 person‐years.

The authors concluded that “this highlights a continuing unmet need for alternative curative interventions in SCD.”

Reference

Mahesri M, Schneeweiss S, Globe D, et al. Clinical outcomes following bone marrow transplantation in patients with sickle cell disease: A cohort study of US Medicaid enrollees. Eur J Haematol. 2020; https://doi.org/10.1111/ejh.13546.