History of pediatric stem cell transplantation.

During the past 50 yr, intensive studies into the use of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for therapy of cancer and non-malignant hematologic diseases have changed this treatment modality from one that was thought to be plagued by insurmountable complications to one that is now standard therapy for some diseases. Continued research by transplant teams worldwide is likely to allow continued progress toward developing novel and improved treatment modalities and even wider application of the use of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells in the treatment of human diseases. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Munksgaard.