Transplant characteristics and self-reported pulmonary outcomes in Swiss childhood cancer survivors after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation—a cohort study

Childhood cancer survivors treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation are at high risk for pulmonary morbidity and mortality. In this retrospective study we described transplant characteristics of pediatric patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in Switzerland and how these characteristics changed over time, compared self-reported pulmonary outcomes between transplanted and non-transplanted survivors, and investigated risk factors for the reported pulmonary outcomes. As part of the population-based Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, we sent questionnaires to all ≥5-year childhood cancer survivors diagnosed 1976–2010 at age ≤20 years. We included 132 transplanted survivors and 368 matched non-transplanted survivors. During the study period transplant characteristics changed, with decreasing use of total body irradiation and increased use of peripheral blood stem cells and mismatched and unrelated donors as transplant source. One-fifth of transplanted survivors (20%, 95%CI 13–27%) and 18% of non-transplanted survivors (95%CI 13–21%) reported at least one pulmonary outcome. None of the analyzed factors was significantly associated with an increased risk of pulmonary outcomes in multivariable analysis. We found that pulmonary outcomes were frequently reported in transplanted and non-transplanted childhood cancer survivors, indicating a strong need for long-term pulmonary follow-up care.