Upfront Alternative Donor Transplant Versus Immunosuppressive Therapy in Patients with Severe Aplastic Anemia Who Lack FullyHLA Matched Related Donor: Systematic Review and Meta- Analysis of Retrospective Studies. on Behalf of the Severe Aplastic Anemia Working Party of European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (SAAWP of EBMT)

Idiopathic aplastic anemia is a rare and life threatening disorder characterized by immune mediated hematopoietic stem cells dysfunction. The standard treatment strategy of severe aplastic anemia (SAA) has been hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) for children and adults younger than the age of 40 if an HLA matched sibling donor (MSD) is available. Immunosuppressive therapy (IST) is the mainstay of treatment for older patients or when MSD is not available. The response rate to IST with the use of horse anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is around 70%. Despite that, many patients s