With the rapid revolution of
therapies, hemopoietic
stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has become a widely promoted treatment for
hematological malignancies. High-dose
chemotherapy (HDCT) followed by autologous blood cell (ABC)
transplantation is a standard procedure for patients with primary relapse B-cell
non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and
multiple myeloma (MM), and allogeneic HSCT is one of the few treatments for patients with acute
leukemia. However, refractory and recurrent disease has a negative impact on disease-free survival (DFS) for patients after HSCT. Furthermore, complications such as GVHD and
infection significantly impair the quality of life and life expectancy of patients who receive allogeneic HSCT. The promising efficacy of
chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy for relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblast
leukemia (ALL) has offered hope for patients with R/R
hematological malignancies. However, the long-term survival of patients after CAR-T cell therapy is also threatened by recurrent disease, and relapse occurs in half of patients who achieve remission. In addition, the rapid proliferation of CAR-T cells will cause damage to the balance of the immune system, leading to
cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and CAR-T cell-related
encephalopathy syndrome (CRES). Although therapeutic regimens such as
IL-6 pathway blockers have obvious impacts on the side effects related to CAR-T cell therapy, there are still reports of patient deaths in past clinical trials. Based on the characteristics of HSCT and CAR-T cell therapy, it is unclear whether there is a better combination of cutting-edge immune
cell therapy and traditional
transplantation to improve the prognosis of patients. This review focuses on the possible ways to take full advantage of each
therapy in the treatment of
hematological malignancies.