Comparison of Outcomes after Peripheral Blood Haploidentical versus Matched Unrelated Donor Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Retrospective Single-Center Review

Recent studies comparing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) using HLA-matched unrelated donors (MUD) versus HLA-haploidentical donors in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have suggested equivalent outcomes. The graft source used in most studies of haploidentical transplants has been bone marrow. Similar comparisons between MUD and haplo-HCT using peripheral blood as a graft source have not been adequately performed. We reviewed the records of all 52 AML patients who underwent haplo-HCT (using peripheral blood and post-transplantation high-dose cyclophosphamide) between January 2010 and August 2015 at our institution and compared their outcomes with 88 patients who had a MUD transplant in the same time frame and were frequency matched (preanalysis) to the haploidentical group for conditioning intensity. Multivariate analysis found no difference in outcomes between the 2 groups with the exception of slower count recovery after haploidentical allografts (HR,.48; 95% CI,.32 to.74 for platelets, and HR,.47; 95% CI,.32 to.71 for neutrophils; P < .001 for both comparisons). Our retrospective analysis, although limited by the small sample size, suggests largely similar outcomes with peripheral blood haploidentical versus MUD transplants for AML.