Serial chimerism analyses indicate that mixed haemopoietic chimerism influences the probability of graft rejection and disease recurrence following allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) for severe aplastic anaemia (SAA): indication for routine assessment of chimerism post SCT for SAA.

Ninety-one patients were studied serially for chimeric status following allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) for severe aplastic anaemia (SAA) or Fanconi Anaemia (FA). Short tandem repeat polymerase chain reaction (STR-PCR) was used to stratify patients into five groups: (A) complete donor chimeras (n = 39), (B) transient mixed chimeras (n = 15) (C) stable mixed chimeras (n = 18), (D) progressive mixed chimeras (n = 14) (E) recipient chimeras with early graft rejection (n = 5). As serial sampling was not possible in Group E, serial chimerism results for 86 patients were available for analysis. The following factors were analysed for association with chimeric status: age, sex match, donor type, aetiology of aplasia, source of stem cells, number of cells engrafted, conditioning regimen, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) prophylaxis, occurrence of acute and chronic GvHD and survival. Progressive mixed chimeras (PMCs) were at high risk of late graft rejection (n = 10, P < 0.0001). Seven of these patients lost their graft during withdrawal of immunosuppressive therapy. STR-PCR indicated an inverse correlation between detection of recipient cells post-SCT and occurrence of acute GvHD (P = 0.008). PMC was a bad prognostic indicator of survival (P = 0.003). Monitoring of chimeric status during cyclosporin withdrawal may facilitate therapeutic intervention to prevent late graft rejection in patients transplanted for SAA.

Ensuring accurate oral mucositis assessment in the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Prospective Oral Mucositis Audit.

Oral mucositis (OM) has substantial negative clinical, quality-of-life, and economic consequences for patients with haematologic malignancies who require myeloablative chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Uniform training in OM assessment is infrequent in clinical practice, so the true incidence and duration of OM are unknown. Nurses and physicians from the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation recently undertook an audit of 214 patients (197 evaluable patients) treated at 25 centres, the Prospective Oral Mucositis Audit (POMA), to determine the incidence, severity, and duration of OM. To standardise the assessment of OM severity, the World Health Organization (WHO) Oral Toxicity Scale was used across centres. This article focuses on the quality control analyses that were conducted to ensure that OM was accurately assessed across all 25 centres. Twenty-two trainers, who received comprehensive training about POMA study design, pathobiology of OM, and endpoint assessment, educated staff at the 25 transplantation centres about OM assessment. The trained staff collected data by completing daily worksheets for each patient. Three quality control analyses, of 82, 1949, and 4111 worksheets respectively, showed a nurse assessment accuracy rate of 74%, 90%, and 90%. The most common errors were in assigning WHO grade 0 or 1. This analysis shows that training of nursing staff had a positive effect on assessment of OM severity, which should ultimately lead to improvement in the quality of supportive care.