Reduced Mortality after Allogeneic Hematopoietic-Cell Transplantation

Over the past decade, advances have been made in the care of patients undergoing transplantation. We conducted a study to determine whether these advances have improved the outcomes of transplantation.

We analyzed overall mortality, mortality not preceded by relapse, recurrent malignant conditions, and the frequency and severity of major complications of transplantation, including graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and hepatic, renal, pulmonary, and infectious complications, among 1418 patients who received their first allogeneic transplants at our center in Seattle in the period from 1993 through 1997 and among 1148 patients who received their first allogeneic transplants in the period from 2003 through 2007. Components of the Pretransplant Assessment of Mortality (PAM) score were used in regression models to adjust for the severity of illness at the time of transplantation.