Post-transplantation cyclophosphamide to facilitate HLA-haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation: Mechanisms and results

Allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) is a curative therapy for a number of high-risk hematologic malignancies. Historically, only patients with a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched sibling or unrelated donor were able to receive this therapy, thus excluding many potential transplant recipients. In recent years, partially mismatched related donor, or human leukocyte antigen-haploidentical (haplo) BMT has expanded the donor pool to nearly every patient in need of a transplant, particularly when using post-transplantation cyclophosphamide to promote immune tolerance and prevent graft-versus-host disease. With now over 15 years of clinical experience using this platform, long terms outcomes are well understood. We review the clinical literature and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of haplo BMT with post-transplantation cyclophosphamide.