Allogeneic Transplantation: When is a Mismatch Better than a Match?

An accepted fact in allogeneic transplantation from unrelated donors, supported by multiple publications, including large numbers of transplantation patients, is that matching for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) is critical to ensure the best outcomes for patients. The current gold standard is an unrelated donor matched for 10/10 (or 8/8) HLA alleles (at HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1 +/− DQB1). Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is increased in the HLA-mismatched setting, and overall survival becomes significantly worse as the number of mismatched alleles at these loci increases  (read more) Print this post