autologous and allogeneic hematopoetic stem cell transplantation for solid tumors in iran

introductio: hematopoietic stem cell transplants (hsct) are considered as treatment options for patients with solid tumors. transplant numbers have changed significantly over the last decade. we have done autologous and allogeneic hsct for treatment of solid tumor patients in our center. methods: in order to show the transplant effect on solid tumor treatment, we collected data from 71 patients (7 allogeneic, and 64 autologous) who had undergone hsct from 1991 to 2011 in our center. the median age of patients was 19.5 years (range: 2-58). the male/female ratio was 41/30. the most common transplant diseases were neuroblastoma (18, 25.7%), germ cell tumors (13, 18.6%) and breast cancer (11, 15.7%). 67 patients (95.7%) received peripheral blood and the 3 other ones (4.3%) received bone marrow as a source of sct. results: the median time of hospitalization after high-dose therapy was 24 days (range: 11-50 days; 23 days for autologous and 29 days for allogeneic patients). at present, 57 patients (80%) are still alive with median follow-up of 9 months. transplant-related mortality (trm) was 4.3%. the causes of death were progressive disease, metastasis and multi-organ failure. 2-year overall and disease-free survivals were 81.7% and 72%, respectively (for the autologous patients overall and disease-free survivals were 80.7% and 71.1%, respectively). among 7 patients with allogeneic transplantation, 2 developed acute-graft-versus host disease (gvhd) and 4 developed chronic gvhd. one patient had chronic gvhd following acute gvhd. conclusion: our study reveals promising results of hsct in the treatment of some solid tumors. in other hand, more additional trial study is needed.