January 31, 2010
Two important articles have recently been published:
- Transfusion therapy is a critical aspect of supportive care in HSCT. Most transplant physicians have not had extensive training in transfusion medicine so that a recently published extensive and authoritative review of appropriate transfusion practice before, during, and after hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation should be very helpful. See Category XIX Miscellaneous Topics, ii Transfusion, Citation A
- Can HIV infection be cured with HSCT? It probably has already been accomplished. A remarkable article on the NEJM documents long-term control of HIV by CCR5 Delta32/Delta32 stem-cell transplantation. The authors’ approach may have wide-spread applicability if stem cells homozygous for a 32-bp deletion in the CCR5 allele can be made available. At least at present, this would seem to be most feasible with cord blood stem cells. See Category XIX Miscellaneous Topics, v Transfusion, Citation A . [NOTE: Dr. Gero Hütter, the senior author of this report will present his data at the 8th Annual International Cord Blood Transplantation Symposium in San Francisco, June 3-5, 2010
