Latin America: the next region for haematopoietic transplant progress

Abstract

Haematopoietic cell transplant activity in the 28 countries comprising Latin America is poorly defined. We conducted a voluntary survey of members of the Latin American Bone Marrow Transplantation Group regarding transplant activity 2009-2012. Collated responses were compared with data of transplant rates from the Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation for other geographic regions. Several socio-economic variables were analysed to determine correlations with transplant rates. In total, 94 teams from 12 countries reported 11 519 transplants including 7033 autotransplants and 4486 allotransplants. Annual activity increased from 2517 transplants in 2009 to 3263 in 2012, a 30% increase. Median transplants rate (transplant per million inhabitants) in 2012 was 64 (autotransplants, median 40; allotransplants, median 24). This rate is substantially lower than that in North America and European regions (482 and 378) but higher than that in the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Pacific regions (30 and 45). However, the Latin America transplant rate is 5-8-fold lower than that in America and Europe, suggesting a need to increase transplant availability. Transplant team density in Latin America (teams per million population; 1.8) is 3-4-fold lower than that in North America (6.2) or Europe (7.6). Within Latin America, there is substantial diversity in transplant rates by country partially explained by diverse socio-economic variables including per capita gross national income, health expenditure and physician density. These data should help inform future health-care policy in Latin America.

Transplantation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Primary Immunodeficiencies in Brazil: Challenges in Treating Rare Diseases in Developing Countries

“…Despite important progress in HSCT in this region, access to HSCT for PID varies dramatically across Latin American countries and even within the same country. A survey performed in 2015 showed that only nine countries had transplanted patients with PID (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, and Costa Rica) [18].…”

Importance of Nongovernmental Organizations for the Establishment of a Successful Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation Program in a Developing Country

“…HSCT is an economically viable treatment of hematologic diseases in well-resourced countries, and recently it has become feasible to perform this procedure in developing countries. 7 , 9 - 11 …”

“…Currently, updated HSCT statistics in Mexico have not been published; a recent study performed in Latin America 11 reported a transplantation rate of 127 and 97 allogeneic and autologous transplantations in 2012, respectively. Our institution and the National Cancer Institute, along with other governmental centers, are the primary tertiary/referral hospitals to perform HSCT, and at the moment, approximately 20% of HSCT in Mexico is performed at our institution.…”

Parvovirus B19 in the Context of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Evaluating Cell Donors and Recipients

“…The group of HSCT evaluated in this study is characterized by a predominant use of BM as cell source, which reflects the clinical practice in Latin American countries, such as Brazil. 53 , 54 Economic constraints, as well as a high number of transplants for marrow failure syndromes, where the use of BM is chosen over other cell sources, are responsible for the disparity with developed countries, where PB predominates as cell source. In fact, in our work, BM failure syndromes (severe aplastic anemias and myelodysplastic syndromes) account for 22.5% of diagnoses.…”