Bone Marrow Transplant . 2020 May 13;1-6. doi: 10.1038/s41409-020-0919-0. Online ahead of print.

The Challenge of COVID-19 and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation; EBMT Recommendations for Management of Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Recipients, Their Donors, and Patients Undergoing CAR T-cell Therapy

Per Ljungman  ^{1   2} , Malgorzata Mikulska  ³ , Rafael de la Camara  ⁴ , Grzegorz W Basak  ⁵ , Christian Chabannon  ⁶ , Selim Corbacioglu  ⁷ , Rafael Duarte  ⁸ , Harry Dolstra  ⁹ , Arjan C Lankester  ¹⁰ , Mohamad Mohty  ¹¹ , Silvia Montoto  ¹² , John Murray  ¹³ , Régis Peffault de Latour  ¹⁴ , John A Snowden  ¹⁵ , Ibrahim Yakoub-Agha  ¹⁶ , Bregje Verhoeven  ¹⁷ , Nicolaus Kröger  ¹⁸ , Jan Styczynski  ¹⁹ , European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation

Abstract

The new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has rapidly spread over the world causing the disease by WHO called COVID-19. This pandemic poses unprecedented stress on the health care system including programs performing allogeneic and autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and cellular therapy such as with CAR T cells. Risk factors for severe disease include age and predisposing conditions such as cancer. The true impact on stem cell transplant and CAR T-cell recipients in unknown. The European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) has therefore developed recommendations for transplant programs and physicians caring for these patients. These guidelines were developed by experts from the Infectious Diseases Working Party and have been endorsed by EBMT's scientific council and board. This work intends to provide guidelines for transplant centers, management of transplant candidates and recipients, and donor issues until the COVID-19 pandemic has passed.