PBSCT is associated with poorer survival and increased chronic GvHD than BMT in Japanese paediatric patients with acute leukaemia and an HLA-matched sibling donor

Background Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) may be used as an alternative to bone marrow (BM) for allogeneic transplantation. Since peripheral blood stem cell bank from unrelated volunteer donor has been started in Japan, use of PBSC allografts may be increased. Therefore we surveyed the outcomes of Japanese leukemia children after PBSC and BM transplantation. Procedure This retrospective study compared the outcomes of 661 children (0–18 years) with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) or acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) who received their first allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT; n = 90) or bone marrow transplantation (BMT; n = 571) from HLA-matched siblings between January 1996 and December 2007. Result Neutrophil recovery was faster after PBSCT than after BMT (ALL: P