Increasing use of reduced intensity conditioning transplants: report of the 2001 EBMT activity survey

Since 1990, the EBMT has annually collected numbers of HSCT by disease indication, donor type and stem cell source. The 2001 survey concentrates on the use of reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) transplants and its dissemination in Europe. In 2001, there were 19576 HSCT for new patients, 6413 with allogeneic HSCT (33%), 13163 with autologous HSCT (67%) and 3256 additional re- or multiple transplants, 868 (667/201) allogeneic and 2658 (537/2121) autologous, collected from 596 centers in 35 European countries. The main indications in 2001 were leukemias (32%; 73% of them allogeneic); lymphomas (53%; 92% of them autologous); solid tumors (11%; 93% of them autologous) and non-malignant disorders (4%; 90% of them allogeneic). Compared to 2000, there was a drop in allogeneic HSCT of over 20% for chronic myeloid leukemia and an increase of 2% in autologous HSCT. A total of 1759 or 27% of allogeneic transplants were reported as RIC HSCT. These have risen in number in 3 years from <1% in 1998. There are wide variations from 0 to 71% RIC HSCT in European countries with no obvious explanation. These data document the current status of blood and marrow transplantation in Europe and indicate a marked change towards RIC HSCT in allogeneic transplantation.