Dr. Abdul Hay on Evaluation of Transplant Eligibility in ALL

Mohammad Maher Abdul Hay, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, director of the Clinical Leukemia Program in NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, and associate director for research in the Bellevue Cancer Center, discusses the process of evaluating the eligibility of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) for transplant.

The Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation-specific Comorbidity Index (HCT-CI), which is made up of 17 points, is used to evaluate whether patients with ALL are eligible for transplant, says Abdul Hay. Points can be given to a patient based on pulmonary function test, history, diabetes status, kidney disease, and more. A score is given to each patient based on these factors. The lower the score, the better the patient will perform on transplant because they will experience fewer complications and mortality from the procedure, explains Abdul Hay. If a patient has a low HCT-CI score and they are deemed eligible for transplant, they should receive transplant, says Abdul Hay.

In this era of graft-versus host disease (GVHD), prevention treatment posttransplant, such as cyclophosphamide-based regimens, have led to decreased incidence of GVHD, resulting in more successful transplants for patients with ALL, concludes Abdul Hay.