Resiliency in Older Adults Undergoing Bone Marrow Transplant

Allogeneic blood and marrow transplantation (alloBMT) is the only potentially curative therapy for many forms of leukemia, lymphoma, and other hematologic malignancies. As with many forms of cancer, many of the most common indications for alloBMT disproportionally affect older people. Although treatments have improved for older adults undergoing therapies for these diseases, the outcomes are variable and there is little biological knowledge to help identify specific factors that would predict why some people do well with treatment and others develop functional and cognitive decline and other adverse health outcomes.

Data specific to patients older than 60 who have undergone alloBMT are sparse even though the 1 year non-relapse mortality rate in patients older than age 50 at Johns Hopkins is 12%. In none of these studies have geriatric assessment measures in domains such as cognition and function been evaluated. Given the low incidence of non-relapse mortality in the investigators' older patients, the investigators have a unique opportunity to study the factors that influence not only mortality but function after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The investigators aim to be able to counsel patients more specifically about likely outcomes after transplant.