by University of Geneva – MedicalXpress –
Transplanting hematopoietic stem cells from healthy individuals is one of the possible treatments for blood cancers. In Switzerland, it involves nearly 300 patients per year. However, nearly half of transplants fail, mainly due to complications related to imperfect genetic compatibility between the donor and recipient.
By comparing the genetic profiles of nearly 1,250 donor-patient pairs with the clinical results of the transplants with unprecedented accuracy, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), in collaboration with all Swiss hematopoietic stem cell transplant centers, has demonstrated the crucial importance of the KIR gene system in predicting treatment outcomes.
