BONE marrow transplants may beat stem-cell injections as a way of increasing the production of blood cells when tissue is from an unrelated donor.
A potential problem of either treatment - used for diseases like sickle cell anaemia - is graft-versus-host disease. This potentially fatal condition occurs when donated blood cells launch an immune attack on the host.
Members of the US Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network monitored 273 people receiving donated stem cells and 278 recipients of bone marrow over two years. They found no difference in survival rates. But while those given stem cells produced blood cells more quickly, they also had graft-versus-host disease more often. The findings were presented at the American Society of Haematology Annual Meeting in San Diego this week.
"People tend to favour stem cells because of not having to harvest bone marrow, and quicker engrafting," says David Marks at the University of Bristol, UK. "We will need to reconsider that choice."
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