Significant advances in supportive care for patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia major (TDT) have improved patients' life expectancy. However, transfusion-associated iron overload remains a significant barrier to long-term survival with good quality of life. Today, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the current curative standard of care. Alongside selection of the best available donor, an optimized conditioning regimen is crucial to maximize outcomes for patients with TDT undergoing HSCT. The aim of this retrospective analysis was to investigate the role of busulfanfludarabine-based and treosulfan-fludarabine-based conditioning in TDT patients undergoing HSCT. We included 772 patients registered in the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) database who underwent first HSCT between 2010 and 2018. Four hundred ten patients received busulfan-fludarabine-based conditioning (median age 8.6 years) and 362 patients received treosulfan-fludarabine-based conditioning (median age 5.7 years). Patient outcomes were retrospectively compared by conditioning regimen. Two-year overall survival was 92.7% (95% confidence interval: 89.3-95.1%) after busulfan-fludarabine-based conditioning and 94.7% (95% confidence interval: 91.7-96.6%) after treosulfan-fludarabine-based conditioning. There was a very low incidence of second HSCT overall. The main causes of death were infections, graft-versus-host disease, and rejection. In conclusion, use of busulfan or treosulfan as the backbone of myeloablative conditioning for patients with TDT undergoing HSCT resulted in comparably high cure rates. Long-term follow-up studies are warranted to address the important issues of organ toxicities and gonadal function.

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Background Data on management of gray zone lymphoma (GZL) in children and adolescents are scarce. Procedure This retrospective study assessed clinical characteristics and outcome in six Austrian patients with GZL less than 18 years of age (male‐to‐female ratio: 1:1; median age: 15.8 years). Results Two patients each had a classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL)‐like and composite GZL subtype, and one patient each had a large B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (LBCL)‐like and sequential GZL subtype. All had advanced disease with mediastinal and extranodal involvement. Five patients received an LBCL‐ and one patient a cHL‐directed polychemotherapy ± radiotherapy. Out of the former patients, three survived, including two who relapsed and underwent high‐dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue. The latter patient survived. Conclusions GZL remains a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge, necessitating the development of novel treatment concepts performed in a prospective setting.