Stem cell transplantation is a key and sometimes curative treatment approach for many hematological malignancies. Over the past couple of decades, the use of stem cell transplantation has expanded geographically and continues to evolve, with an increasing number of transplantations from unrelated donors, and novel regimens becoming available for prevention and management of transplant complications.
2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplantation Registry (CIBMTR). Launched in 1972, doctors in the United States, the Netherlands, and France combined their efforts to create an international registry of transplants to monitor the outcomes of patients undergoing transplantation, with the goal of deducing the most effective approaches. In order to celebrate the significant advances which have been made in optimizing stem cell transplantation for patients with hematological malignancies over the past 50 years, Frontiers in Oncology is delighted to present three collections, which together aim to collate the next phase of advances in these fields as Open Access publications.
This collection is focusing on advances in understanding the long-term outcomes of patients who undergo bone marrow transplantation, in particular in relation to late complications. Late complications are fairly frequent in patients who undergo hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), with long-term impacts on life expectancy. Secondary solid cancers and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), that which onsets 100 days after transplantation, are two of the most concerning late complications. Chronic GvHD is similar to autoimmune diseases, resulting in a gradual deterioration of quality of life and an increased risk of mortality.
For patients who survive for five years after HSCT, secondary cancers are the primary cause of death, with the risk increasing over time. Non-squamous cell cancers have been associated with radiation exposure, and squamous cell cancers of the skin and oropharyngeal region have been associated with chronic GvHD. Furthermore, chronic GvHD is typically treated with immunosuppressants, which are known to promote carcinogenesis.
This collection welcomes submissions contributing to improving and understanding the long-term outcomes for patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing bone marrow transplantation.
Other collections in the 50 Years of BMT series:
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50 Years of BMT: Risk Stratification, Donor Matching and Stem Cell Collection for Transplantation-
50 Years of BMT: Conditioning Regimens and Early Complications After TransplantationPlease note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.