Introduction

This book stemmed from the concept of a symposium I organized and moderated a few years ago for the annual meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. As the only member of the program committee who had expertise in pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) at the time, I was charged to organize the joint Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation Consortium (PBMTC)/ASPHO symposium for the following year’s annual meeting. Generally, we try to make this session less esoteric in order to address the educational needs of a broader audience beyond pediatric HSCT specialists. At that time, the other committee members and I really appreciated that there can be a significant disconnect between the pediatric HSCT subspecialist and the rest of the pediatric hematology/oncology community with the biggest issues being which patients should be referred to the pediatric HSCT subspecialist for consideration of HSCT and when this referral should be made. Bridging this gap has become more and more important as the indications and accessibility to HSCT continue to expand. The symposium in its final format had one pediatric HSCT subspecialist present the data regarding the indications and the timing of evaluation for HSCT of pediatric patients with malignant conditions. The other symposium speaker addressed the same topics but for patients with nonmalignant disorders for which HSCT may be a treatment option. Overall, this symposium was well attended and well received. Based upon the positive responses received from attendees, this book was conceived and subsequently written with similar objectives and target audience in mind: This book is to provide an in-depth reference guide for not only pediatric HSCT subspecialists but also pediatric hematology/oncology specialists, fellows, residents, nurses, and advanced practitioners.