Pulmonary, Hepatic, and Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Patients with Telomere Biology Disorders

This study aimed to summarize evidence and provide consensus-based guidelines for management of transplantation in patients with telomere biology disorders (TBD). Specifically, this review focuses on clinical management of lung, liver, and bone marrow transplantation in TBD patients.

TBD patients have specific unique biological vulnerabilities such as T cell immunodeficiency, susceptibility to infections, hypersensitivity to chemotherapy and radiation, and cytopenias. Furthermore, multiple organ involvement at diagnosis makes clinical management especially challenging due to higher degree of organ damage, and stress-induced telomeric crisis. Sequential and combined organ transplants, development of novel radiation and alkylator-free conditioning regimen, and use of novel drugs for graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis are some of the recent updates in the field.

Multidisciplinary management is essential to optimize transplant outcomes in patients with TBD. In this review, we provide consensus-based transplant management guidelines for clinical management of transplant in TBD.