Long-Term Survival and Late Deaths after Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation

Background and Methods It is uncertain whether mortality rates among patients who have undergone bone marrow transplantation return to the level of the mortality rates of the general population. We analyzed the characteristics of 6691 patients listed in the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. All the patients were free of their original disease two years after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Mortality rates in this cohort were compared with those of an age-, sex-, and nationality-matched general population. Cox proportional-hazards regression was used to identify risk factors for death more than two years after transplantation (late death). Results Among patients who were free of disease two years after transplantation, the probability of living for five more years was 89 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 88 to 90 percent). Among patients who underwent transplantation for aplastic anemia, the risk of death by the sixth year after transplantation did not differ significantly from ...