Overview of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has evolved over the past 50-60 years to become the standard of care procedure for many disorders. Advances in immunogenetics and immunobiology, conditioning regimens, disease characterization and risk stratification, immune suppression, antimicrobials, and other types of supportive care have made this expansion possible. Some of the earliest work contributed to the first successful bone marrow transplant, performed in a young child with immune deficiency syndrome in 1968. Approximately 15 years later, the graft-versus-leukemia response was recognized as overlapping with the development of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). In the early 1980s, bone marrow transplantation was no longer considered experimental, but as the standard of care for a variety of disorders including acute leukemia and aplastic anemia.