ABSTRACT
Allogeneic bone-marrow transplantation (BMT) has become a widely accepted form of treatment in selected haematological malignancies, bone-marrow failure syndromes and congenital disorders of the lymphohaemopoietic system and metabolism [1,2]. The donor of choice is currently a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-identical unaffected sibling. However, with the decline in family size, only about 30% of patients have an HLAmatched sibling in North America and Western Europe [3]. Transplants have been reported using partially matched family members with single antigen mismatches which increases the donor pool by about 10% [4-6]. Haplo-identical family marrow transplants have also been performed with recent success [7]. Alternatively, many groups have explored the use of volunteer unrelated donors so that more patients can be offered the potentially curative therapy of an allogeneic transplant [4,8-10].
