[cmolinaro]

Related Donor vs Unrelated Donor

by cmolinaro on Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:35 am

Forgive my stupidity, but I cannot understand the whole related/unrelated donor thing. I have the possibility of being transplanted with a unrelated donor who is a 9 out of 10, but I then have a related donor who is a match as far as HLA testing goes. So does that make him only a 5 out of 10 match? Isn't that pretty bad?

[Dana]

Re: Related Donor vs Unrelated Donor

by Dana on Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:33 am

Hi CMolinaro,
I can only give you a layman's answer. I had my haplo at Johns Hopkins where they have been doing them longer than anyone else, and they said their data shows the benefits are the same as an unrelated full match in terms of outcome, but that the risks are lower with a related (don't ask me how). My doctor said the other benefit is that it's easier to go back and get a donor lymphocyte infusion (if needed) from a family member. Yet I have also heard that the risk of severe gvh from a DLI with a half match is higher....(I haven't had one of those yet so I can't give much input there). But I did have two haplos (a brother and a daughter) as consolidation with reduced intensity conditioning and did very well. There are so many tough decisions to make--I wish you well! Dana

[Dr. Jason Valent]

Re: Related Donor vs Unrelated Donor

by Dr. Jason Valent on Sun Sep 22, 2013 3:05 pm

there is not a definitive answer to this in multiple myeloma. The donor transplant remains experimental therapy. If your related donor is a sibling, and they are a perfect match, that would be best. The 9/10 from unrelated donor is not as good as a sibling match.

[Robbyn]

Re: Related Donor vs Unrelated Donor

by Robbyn on Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:13 am

My suggestion is go to Johns Hopkins . My son is there now and he is very fortunate to have his brother as a full match. But they do half matches with relatives and are very successful. I do know the GVH disease is higher without full match but Hopkins has more knowledge and ways to keep that under control. If we didn't have a full match his brother would still have done the half match over nonrelated full match.