Faculty Collaboration Database

Optimization of therapy for severe aplastic anemia based on clinical, biologic, and treatment response parameters: conclusions of an international working group on severe aplastic anemia convened by the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network, March 2010. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2011 Mar;17(3):291-9

Date

11/03/2010

Pubmed ID

21034841

Pubmed Central ID

PMC3053041

DOI

10.1016/j.bbmt.2010.10.028

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-79551684829 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   34 Citations

Abstract

Although recent advances in therapy offer the promise for improving survival in patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA), the small size of the patient population, lack of a mechanism in North America for longitudinal follow-up of patients, and inadequate cooperation among hematologists, scientists, and transplant physicians remain obstacles to conducting large studies that would advance the field. To address this issue, the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN) convened a group of international experts in March 2010 to define the most important questions in the basic science, immunosuppressive therapy (IST), and bone marrow transplantation (BMT) of SAA and propose initiatives to facilitate clinical and biologic research. Key conclusions of the working group were: (1) new patients should obtain accurate, expert diagnosis and early identification of biologic risk; (2) a population-based SAA outcomes registry should be established in North America to collect data on patients longitudinally from diagnosis through and after treatment; (3) a repository of biologic samples linked to the clinical data in the outcomes registry should be developed; (4) innovative approaches to unrelated donor BMT that decrease graft-versus-host disease are needed; and (5) alternative donor transplantation approaches for patients lacking HLA-matched unrelated donors must be improved. A partnership of BMT, IST, and basic science researchers will develop initiatives and partner with advocacy and funding organizations to address these challenges. Collaboration with similar study groups in Europe and Asia will be pursued.

Author List

Pulsipher MA, Young NS, Tolar J, Risitano AM, Deeg HJ, Anderlini P, Calado R, Kojima S, Eapen M, Harris R, Scheinberg P, Savage S, Maciejewski JP, Tiu RV, DiFronzo N, Horowitz MM, Antin JH

Authors

Mary Eapen MBBS, DCh, MRCPI, MS Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Mary M. Horowitz MD, MS Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

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

Aging
Anemia, Aplastic
Biological Specimen Banks
Biomedical Research
Bone Marrow Transplantation
Clinical Trials as Topic
Humans
Internationality
North America
Public-Private Sector Partnerships
Registries