Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
(HSCT) has been an established curative therapy for
the various hematologic nonmalignant and malignant
diseases which respond poorly following conventional
treatment, immunological disorders and several
inherited disorders as well as some oncologic diseases
(Table 1)(1-4). The concept of this effective treatment
for nonmalignant diseases is by allowing the replacement
of an abnormal hematopoietic system after
myeloablative therapy with a normal one(3). For the
treatment of a variety of malignant diseases, HSCT
allows the administration of higher and potentially
more effective doses of therapy to eradicate the malignant
cells before rescue of the bone marrow function
with normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) because
hematopoietic toxicity is dose-limiting for many types
of chemoradiotherapy. Further, allogeneic HSCT offers
the donor’s immune cells that are capable of killing
patient’s malignant cells. This so-called graft-versustumor
(GVT) effect is a powerful form of immunotherapy
that can eradicate chemoresistant malignant
cells(3,5).
HSCT can be categorized according to the
relationship between the donor and recipient and
according to their anatomical sources of stem cells.
The former can be described as followings:
1. Autologous HSCT which is the transplantation
using the patient’s own hematopoietic cells to