Blood cell recovery and return of immunologic function is prompt. Allogeneic transplants have the lowest risk of tumor relapse because of the GVL effect. For more information on GVL, click here. However, GVHD, graft failure, and immune deficiency are potential problems ,especially with unrelated transplants. The patient's own marrow or peripheral blood is used.
Autologous transplants are the most commonly performed transplants.
Like syngeneic transplants, there is no risk of rejection or GVHD, and the GVL effect is absent. There is the additional concern of tumor contamination of the transplant. This may be a relatively minor concern for certain solid tumors but is a major problem for all blood cancers and some solid tumors. Johns Hopkins has pioneered methods to 'purge' or remove tumor cells from autologous transplants, as well as methods to reduce relapse similar to the allogeneic GVL effect. A critical aspect of the BMT program at Johns Hopkins is the Graft Engineering Laboratory.