Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in Hong Kong (Supplement 3)

In Hong Kong, the first case of haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) was performed at the Bone Marrow Transplant Center, Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) in May 1990 for a female patient with acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) with human leukocyte antigen (HLA)–matched sibling donor.1 Since then three more transplant centres have been established, including Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) in 1991, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1995, and Tuen Mun Hospital in 2006. Paediatric HSCT, both autologous and allogeneic, is performed at QMH and PWH. For adult patients, autologous HSCT is performed at all four hospitals while QMH is the only centre for allogeneic HSCT in adults. Unfortunately, a central registry of all HSCT activities is yet to be established in Hong Kong. Such a central registry is desirable not only for monitoring HSCT activities, but also for gathering information on long-term survival, late complications, uncommon conditions as well as changes in trends over the years which will help in planning the HSCT service for the future. Unofficial estimates of about 170 HSCTs are performed annually and a total of a little over 2000 HSCTs have been performed up to the end of 2008. Among the latter, 1708 (approximately 85%) were performed at QMH at a rate of about 130 per annum.