Objectives

Our sub-committee is dedicated to every aspect of stem cell transplantation in any malignant diseases: from indication to late effect through conditioning regimen, donor and stem cell source selection, GvHD prophylaxis and treatment or supportive care.

We invite any colleagues interested in SCT to participate to our both retrospective and prospective studies, as well as to propose projects and/or report their own work. We want to be very inclusive and young colleagues are very welcome.

One of our main achievement of the last 15 years is the IBFM-ALL study program from BFM-ALL-SCT 2003 to FORUM. Then, our most exciting perspective is to work collectively on the next international prospective study about SCT in high-risk ALL in pediatric patients. Nevertheless, other topics and other diseases (AML, NHL, JMML) have to be actively discussed as well.

Open and completed clinical trials

Open

ALL SCT PED 2012 Forum (for omitting radiation under majority age). Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation in Children and Adolescents with ALL in CR. Prospective controlled randomized international study:

• Principal investigator: Christina Peters, E-mail: peters@stanna.at
• Participating countries: Austria, Argentina, Australia, Chile, Czech Republic. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong-Kong, Hungary, Japan, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Polland, Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA
• The study is open for international recruitment. Randomization is closed.

Completed

ALL SCT BFM International, Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation for Children and Adolescents with ALL, Prospective international controlled comparative non-randomized study:

• Principal investigator: Christina Peters, Email: peters@stanna.at.
• Start: January 2007.
• Participating countries: Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Slowakia, Sweden, Turkey.

Role of MRD in ALL after SCT: Retrospective observational multi-center WIG joint I-BFM/EBMT and COG/PBMTC study for assessing the role of post-transplant MRD in children with ALL:

• Main investigators: Peter Bader & Michael Pulsipher, Email: bader@kgu.de, mpulsipher@chla.usc.edu.
• Active countries: Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, United States of America.

AML post transplant relapse. A retrospective I-BFM study:

• Main investigators: Martin Sauer, Email: martin@mh-hannover.de
• Active countries: Australia, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany. Accrual: 289 patients (175 non-transplanted, 105 transplanted).

AML eligibility criteria for transplantation: an I-BFM Survey. Survey circulated among SCT Committee Members regarding SCT eligibility criteria in AML pediatric patients:

• Main investigator: Brenda Gibson, Email: Gibson@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
• Participating groups: AIEOP, BFM, Canada, COG, CPH, DCOG, France, Gazi, Israel, JCCG / JPLSG, NOPHO, PINDA, PLLSG, Serbia, Slovenia, St.Jude, UK. Accrual: 18 countries

CML SCT I-BFM: Multicenter Study: Prospective controlled multi-center therapy optimization study for children with CML undergoing SCT. Prospective international single-arm study.

• Main investigator: Susanne Matthes-Martin, Email: matthes@stanna.at
• Active countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Italy, Poland. Accrual: 13 enrolled patients, + 12 observational patients. Outcome on 25 patients: alive 24/25, deaths in CR 1/25, TKI-free alive 22/25. Closure planned in 2017.
• The study is open for international recruitment since 2009.

Refractory NHL management within I-BFM. A retrospective I-BFM study:

• Main investigators: Birgit Burkhardt, Email: burkhardt@ukmuenster.de
• Active countries: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, France, Finland, Germany,  Hong-Kong, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America. Accrual: 514 patients
• Status: Analyses ongoing.

Selected Publications

Total Body Irradiation or Chemotherapy Conditioning in Childhood ALL: A Multinational, Randomized, Noninferiority Phase III Study.

Peters C, Dalle JH, Locatelli F, Poetschger U, Sedlacek P, Buechner J, Shaw PJ, Staciuk R, Ifversen M, Pichler H, Vettenranta K, Svec P, Aleinikova O, Stein J, Güngör T, Toporski J, Truong TH, Diaz-de-Heredia C, Bierings M, Ariffin H, Essa M, Burkhardt B, Schultz K, Meisel R, Lankester A, Ansari M, Schrappe M; IBFM Study Group;; von Stackelberg A; IntReALL Study Group; Balduzzi A; I-BFM SCT Study Group; Corbacioglu S; EBMT Paediatric Diseases Working Party; Bader P.J Clin Oncol. 2021 Feb 1;39(4):295-307.

Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation from HLA-Mismatched Donors for Pediatric Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated According to the 2003 BFM and 2007 International BFM Studies: Impact of Disease Risk on Outcomes.

Dalle JH, Balduzzi A, Bader P, Lankester A, Yaniv I, Wachowiak J, Pieczonka A, Bierings M, Yesilipek A, Sedlaçek P, Ifversen M, Sufliarska S, Toporski J, Glogova E, Poetschger U, Peters C.Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2018 Sep;24(9):1848-1855. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2018.05.009. Epub 2018 May 14.

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in the Youngest: Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Beyond.

Balduzzi A, Buechner J, Ifversen M, Dalle JH, Colita AM, Bierings M.Front Pediatr. 2022 Feb 24;10:807992. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.807992. eCollection 2022.

The impact of donor type on the outcome of pediatric patients with very high risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A study of the ALL SCT 2003 BFM-SG and 2007-BFM-International SG.

Dalle JH, Balduzzi A, Bader P, Pieczonka A, Yaniv I, Lankester A, Bierings M, Yesilipek A, Sedlacek P, Ifversen M, Svec P, Toporski J, Gungor T, Wachowiak J, Glogova E, Poetschger U, Peters C.Bone Marrow Transplant. 2021 Jan;56(1):257-266.

More precisely defining risk peri-HCT in pediatric ALL: pre- vs post-MRD measures, serial positivity, and risk modeling.

Bader P, Salzmann-Manrique E, Balduzzi A, Dalle JH, Woolfrey AE, Bar M, Verneris MR, Borowitz MJ, Shah NN, Gossai N, Shaw PJ, Chen AR, Schultz KR, Kreyenberg H, Di Maio L, Cazzaniga G, Eckert C, van der Velden VHJ, Sutton R, Lankester A, Peters C, Klingebiel TE, Willasch AM, Grupp SA, Pulsipher MA.Blood Adv. 2019 Nov 12;3(21):3393-3405

Transplantation in Children and Adolescents with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia from a Matched Donor versus an HLA-Identical Sibling: Is the Outcome Comparable? Results from the International BFM ALL SCT 2007 Study.

Balduzzi A, Dalle JH, Wachowiak J, Yaniv I, Yesilipek A, Sedlacek P, Bierings M, Ifversen M, Sufliarska S, Kalwak K, Lankester A, Toporski J, Di Maio L, Glogova E, Poetschger U, Peters C.Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2019 Nov;25(11):2197-2210

Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation from HLA-Mismatched Donors for Pediatric Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated According to the 2003 BFM and 2007 International BFM Studies: Impact of Disease Risk on Outcomes.

Dalle JH, Balduzzi A, Bader P, Lankester A, Yaniv I, Wachowiak J, Pieczonka A, Bierings M, Yesilipek A, Sedlaçek P, Ifversen M, Sufliarska S, Toporski J, Glogova E, Poetschger U, Peters C.Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2018 Sep;24(9):1848-1855.

Outcome of relapse after allogeneic HSCT in children with ALL enrolled in the ALL-SCT 2003/2007 trial.

Kuhlen M, Willasch AM, Dalle JH, Wachowiak J, Yaniv I, Ifversen M, Sedlacek P, Guengoer T, Lang P, Bader P, Sufliarska S, Balduzzi A, Strahm B, von Luettichau I, Hoell JI, Borkhardt A, Klingebiel T, Schrappe M, von Stackelberg A, Glogova E, Poetschger U, Meisel R, Peters C.Br J Haematol. 2018 Jan;180(1):82-89

Fertility preservation issues in pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: practical approaches from the consensus of the Pediatric Diseases Working Party of the EBMT and the International BFM Study Group.

Balduzzi A, Dalle JH, Jahnukainen K, von Wolff M, Lucchini G, Ifversen M, Macklon KT, Poirot C, Diesch T, Jarisch A, Bresters D, Yaniv I, Gibson B, Willasch AM, Fadini R, Ferrari L, Lawitschka A, Ahler A, Sänger N, Corbacioglu S, Ansari M, Moffat R, Dalissier A, Beohou E, Sedlacek P, Lankester A, De Heredia Rubio CD, Vettenranta K, Wachowiak J, Yesilipek A, Trigoso E, Klingebiel T, Peters C, Bader P.Bone Marrow Transplant. 2017 Oct;52(10):1406-1415.

Committee members

Persis Amrolia, Marc Ansari, Florian Babor, Peter Bader, Adriana Balduzzi, Khalil Ben Hassine, Alice Bertaina, Ettore Biagi, Bella Bielorai, Marc Bierings, Jochen Büchner, Birgit Burkhardt, Friso Calkoen, Selim Corbacioglu, Daniela Cuzzubbo, Jean-Hugues Dalle, Giovanna D’Amico, Erica Dander, Tamara Diesch, Maura Faraci, Krivan Gergely, Brenda Gibson, Sara Ghorashian, Gal Goldstein, Sergio Gomez, Stelios Graphakos, Tayfun Gungor, Carsten Heilmann, Ingeborg Hirsh, Peter Hoogerbrugge, Marianne Ifversen, Andrea Jarisch, Koji Kato, Nagy Kalman, Krzysztof Kalwak,  Edoardo Lanino, Arjan Lankester, Anita Lawitschka, Vincent Lee, Franco Locatelli, Giovanna Lucchini, Chiara Magnani, Riccardo Masetti, Roland Meisel, Karin Mellgren, Gérard Michel, Giuseppe Morreale, Ingo Müller, Silvia Nucera, Julia Palma, Christina Peters, Anna Pieczonka, Herbert Pichler, Arcangelo Prete, Michael Pulsipher, Claudia Rossig, Attilio Rovelli, Martin Sauer, Peter Shaw, Kirk Schultz, Petr Sedlacek, Jan Stary, Jerry Stein, Polina Stepensky, Brigitte Strahm, Jacek Toporski, Amos Toren, Dominik Turkiewicz, Jacek Wachowiak, Andre Manfred Willasch, Isaac Yaniv, Yaniv Yanir, Marco Zetta