Hematological malignancy stem cell transplants: improving matches to reduce mortality

In a recent study, enhanced sequencing techniques have revealed in greater detail the genetic factors, which may affect rates of survival and complications following hematopoietic cell transplantation in hematological malignancy patients.A recent study has revealed that a novel human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing method may lead to improved hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and increased survival rates in hematological malignancy patients. The research, undertaken at Anthony Nolan Research Institute (London, UK), examined 891 cases of adult and paediatric HLA matching in volunteer unrelated donor (VUD) HCT between 1996 and 2011. The genes HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, DQb1, DRB1 and DPB1 are used to...