Bone marrow transplantation in childhood: a report from the AIEOP-BMT group registry.

A multicenter cooperative group has been activated in Italy in 1986, with the aim of focusing on the following issues: to standardize perspectively the approach to bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in pediatric centers granting the recommendations of the Associazione Italiana di Ematologia e Oncologia Pediatrica (AIEOP); to study effects and toxicity of preparative regimens to BMT; to evaluate the special features of BMT in children, such as clinical management, care and late effects, as peculiar issues of a pediatric setting. Indeed, one of the major aims of the group is to attempt to address in the most appropriate ways, such as in children only and at a nation-wide level, the most crucial questions about the real role of BMT, taking advantage from the fact that most of the children with cancer undergoing BMT in Italy have been treated homogeneously before transplant, i.e. according to AIEOP protocols (70%). Accordingly, specific information were recorded by means of problem oriented forms, aimed to generate a full registry. The registry has been collecting the experiences of 10 pediatric hematology and oncology centers where children eligible for BMT were registered and/or where BMT was performed. This paper was meant both to summarize the 4 years activity of the registry and to analyze what we have learnt so far, as well as what may be suggested to design our future strategies by presently available although retrospective data. It is concluded that the pediatric BMT registry we set up appears useful and of growing interest and potential relevance.