Haemopoietic stem cell transplantation in Australia, 1992-95: a report from the Australian Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient Registry.

Abstract

Bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantation is increasingly utilised in Australia. The Australian Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient Registry was founded in 1991 to record this activity. To describe allogeneic and autologous bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantation in Australia during 1992-95. Each bone marrow transplant programme in each State of Australia has been invited to contribute information to the Registry and all do. A single information sheet is compiled by the data manager in each programme when a marrow transplant is performed and mailed to the Registry office. An annual follow-up sheet is then mailed from the Registry to the contributing centre at the anniversary of each individual transplant. Australia-wide, haemopoietic cell transplants have increased in number from 478 in 1992 to 681 in 1995. The number of hospitals contributing registrations to the Australian Bone Marrow Transplant Registry has increased from 20 in 1992 to 25 in 1995. The main reason for the increased number of transplants is an increase in the number of autologous blood stem cell transplants including an increase in the number of staged autologous blood stem cell transplants. The most common indication for a single autologous transplant in 1995 was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and for a staged autologous transplant was breast cancer. The commonest indication for an allogeneic family member transplant in 1995 was acute myeloid leukaemia and for an allogeneic unrelated donor transplant, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The three year actuarial overall survival for patients receiving a haemopoietic stem cell transplant between 1992 and 1994 was 54% with a median follow-up time of 2.04 years. Recurrence of the underlying malignant disease was the main cause of death during both the first and second year post transplant after both allogeneic (13.3% and 8.3%) and autologous (22.1% and 11.8%) transplantation. Treatment-related mortality was 13.1% after allogeneic transplantation and 3.3% after autologous transplantation. Trends in bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantation practice in Australia during 1992-1995 have been outlined and both practice and outcome can be compared with that in other countries. The main cause of treatment failure, recurrence of the underlying malignant disease, indicates that this is where current and future research needs to be focused.