- Age < 65 years,
- Cardiac ejection fraction > 50%,
- Liver function tests must not exceed twice the normal level
- Pulmonary function tests: DLCO > 60%,
- Good general condition (performance status) of the patient.
Criteria for a myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplant:
- Age < 55 years,
- HLA-compatible sister or brother (6 out of 6 or 5 out of 6),
- Cardiac ejection fraction > 50%,
- Normal liver function parameters,
- Pulmonary function tests: DLCO > 60%.
Criteria for a non-myeloablative (reduced-intensity conditioning) allogeneic stem cell transplant:
- Age < 65 years
- HLA-compatible brother, sister or parent.
"Bone marrow transplant" criteria according to the disease and its stage:
Acute myelodysplastic leukaemia
- Development of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia following a myelodysplastic syndrome,
- Patients with acute myeloid leukaemia without the following chromosomal abnormalities: (8;21), t(15;17), (Inv16);
- Patients not responding to treatment,
- Flt-3-positive patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
- Patients with poor-prognosis chromosomal abnormalities, such as the Philadelphia chromosome or a rearrangement of the 11q23 region,
- Patients whose white blood cell count at diagnosis exceeds 30 – 50,000 per microlitre.
- Patients with involvement of the central nervous system or testicles,
- Patients not responding to first-line treatment
Myelodysplastic syndrome
- Patients with a blast percentage > 5%.
- Patients whose risk score is intermediate-1, intermediate-2 or higher.
- Patients with cytopenia on several tests.
Non-Hodgkin lymphomas
- Diffuse large cell lymphomas;
- At first relapse (first recurrence after treatment),
- First remission in high-risk or intermediate-high-risk patients.
- Mantle cell lymphoma; after first-line treatment
- Follicular lymphoma;
- Patients not responding sufficiently to first-line treatment,
- Patients in whom the effect of treatment lasts less than 12 months
- Patients in second relapse,
- Patients showing transformation into diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Hodgkin lymphoma
- Patients showing no improvement after first-line treatment,
- Patients who first responded to first-line treatment and then relapsed
Multiple myeloma
- After first-line treatment (reduction in M protein after 2 to 4 cycles of chemotherapy)
Zafer Gülbaş
MD, Prof. Dr. of Internal Medicine and Haematology
Oncology – Haematology-Oncology
Zafer Gülbaş
MD, Prof. Dr. of Internal Medicine and Haematology
Oncology – Haematology-Oncology
Education and career
• Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine
• Anadolu University, Faculty of Medicine
• Atatürk Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Centre
• Hadassah Medical Center, Israel
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, United States
• M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center, United States
• Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada
Specialities and areas of medical interest
• Treatment of haematological tumours
• Stem cell transplantation
• Platelet function
• Flow cytometry
• Blood banks