Faculty Collaboration Database

A scheme for defining cause of death and its application in the T cell depletion trial. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2007 Dec;13(12):1469-76

Date

11/21/2007

Pubmed ID

18022577

DOI

10.1016/j.bbmt.2007.08.047

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-36048960178 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   139 Citations

Abstract

The primary cause of death (COD) provides important information in many studies of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). A panel of experts critically assessed the CODs submitted by 15 transplantation centers for 281 patients who died in a randomized multicenter trial of unrelated HSCT. The panel reviewed the CODs reported by the transplantation centers, which used the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research and National Marrow Donor Program COD reporting form. The panel determined that the existing criteria for primary and contributing CODs lacked sufficient stringency for uniform interpretation. A hierarchy was developed and applied to the T cell depletion project. Using its scheme, the panel reclassified 157 CODs (56%) reported by the transplantation centers. The changes resulted in increased recognition of graft-versus-host disease as the primary COD and a concomitant decrease in attribution of the primary COD to infection. This algorithm promotes consistent assignment of primary and contributing CODs for patients with leukemia or lymphoma who expire after myeloablative allogeneic HSCT.

Author List

Copelan E, Casper JT, Carter SL, van Burik JA, Hurd D, Mendizabal AM, Wagner JE, Yanovich S, Kernan NA

Author

James Casper MD Emeritus Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Algorithms
Cause of Death
Graft vs Host Disease
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
Humans
Leukemia
Lymphocyte Depletion
Lymphoma
Observer Variation
Retrospective Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
United States