Marrow transplantation from donors other than HLA identical siblings.

As marrow transplantation has become the treatment of choice for many hematologic diseases, the lack of HLA-matched family donors has become a critical issue. With the advancement of histocompatibility testing technology, it has become possible to begin defining those genetic determinants that are important to a successful transplant, and begin exploring the use of related donors who are not fully HLA matched, and unrelated donors, HLA matched or not. Given the early encouraging data, it appears likely that a substantial number of patients will benefit from the use of such alternative donors.