Sex-mismatched hematopoietic cell transplantation is linked to increased graft-versus-host disease and mortality in myeloablative conditioning. Here we evaluated outcomes of 1,041 adult transplant recipients at two centers between 2006 and 2013 and investigated how the effect of sex-mismatching differed in myeloablative, reducedintensity, and non-myeloablative total lymphoid irradiation with anti-thymocyte globulin conditioning. Among patients who underwent myeloablative conditioning, male recipients with female donors had increased chronic graft-versus-host disease (hazard ratio 1.83, P<0.01), increased non-relapse mortality (hazard ratio 1.84, P=0.022) and inferior overall survival (hazard ratio 1.59, P=0.018). In contrast, among patients who received reduced-intensity conditioning, male recipients with female donors had increased acute graft-versus-host disease (hazard ratio 1.96, P<0.01) but no difference in non-relapse mortality or overall survival. Among the patients who underwent total lymphoid irradiation with anti-thymocyte globulin, male recipients with female donors showed no increase in graft-versus-host disease or non-relapse mortality. Notably, only in the cohort receiving total lymphoid irradiation with antithymocyte globulin were male recipients with female donors significantly associated with reduced relapse (hazard ratio 0.64, P<0.01), and allo-antibody responses against H-Y antigens were predictive of reduced relapse. In the cohort given total lymphoid irradiation with anti-thymocyte globulin, the graft-versus-leukemia effect resulted in superior overall survival in recipients of sex-mismatched grafts (HR 0.69, P=0.037). In addition, only in the cohort treated with total lymphoid irradiation with anti-thymocyte globulin were female recipients with male donors associated with reduced relapse (hazard ratio 0.59, P<0.01) and superior survival (hazard ratio 0.61, P=0.014) compared with sex-matched pairs. We conclude that the risks and benefits of sex-mismatched transplants appear to differ according to conditioning strategy and this could affect donor selection.
Risks and benefits of sex-mismatched hematopoietic cell transplantation differ according to conditioning strategy
ABSTRACT
© F e r r a t a S t o r t i F o u n d a t i o nH. Nakasone et al.
1478haematologica | 2015; 100 (11) factors and disease status are among the major drivers determining the conditioning intensity for HLA-matched or single-allele mismatched transplantation. In general, after selection of conditioning, if multiple potential donors are available, other factors such as blood type and sex of the donor versus recipient are evaluated. To determine a potential effect of sex-mismatching within each conditioning type, we evaluated the outcomes of 1,041 adult recipients at two centers between 2006 and 2013. We found that the impact of sex-mismatched transplants differs according to conditioning strategy. Myeloablative conditioned, sex-mismatched Female→Male patients showed increased non-relapse mortality and reduced overall survi...