Bone Marrow Transplant: History

The first successful bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for beta thalassemia major was performed in 1981 in Seattle, Washington. The recipient was a 16 month-old boy referred from the University of Pavia, Italy. Using transplantation techniques for treating fatal diseases, this first successful bone marrow transplantation set the stage for a surge of interest in using transplantation as a potential cure for nonfatal but severely disabling diseases. In the same year doctor Guido Lucarelli in Pesaro, Italy attempted a similar bone marrow transplant. The recipient was a 14 year-old boy with Thalassemia major (Cooley's anemia). This attempt was not as successful as the Seattle case; the donor marrow cells failed to engraft. Over the next several years the medical group at Pesaro adopted advances in the field of transplantation to become the most successful group in the world offering bone marrow transplantation for the cure of beta thalassemia major. After hundreds of transplants, the medical group developed a staging system to predict the outcome of transplantation in children up to age 16 years and adults who are candidates for this procedure. By 1990, the number of transplants at the Pesaro Centre had reached 697. <next>

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