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Psychooncology. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 April 14.
Published in final edited form as: Psychooncology. 2008 March ; 17(3): 304­307.

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Sibling stem cell donor experiences at a single institution
Lori S. Wiener*, Emilie Steffen-Smith, Haven B. Battles, Alan Wayne, Cynthia P. Love, and Terry Fry Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

Abstract
Allogeneic bone marrow (BM) and cytokine mobilized peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation can be curative for patients with malignant and nonmalignant hematologic diseases. Siblings are most often selected as a donor match; however, research on sibling donors is limited and has focused primarily on conventional BM donors. This exploratory study describes the experiences of PBSC sibling donors at a single institution. Through retrospective interviews, 14 sibling donors shared their perceived needs and concerns before and after their stem cell collection. Donors identified fears about the donation procedure, and expressed the need for more information about transplant outcome and complications. The inclusion of the sibling donors themselves, rather than the report of their parents or health-care providers and the qualitative nature of the structured design allowed sibling donors to describe their concerns and thoughts without being restrained by the beliefs of the participant's parents, researcher or sibling's medical team. Suggestions for visual educational tools, psychosocial interventions and future research are provided.

Keywords hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation; pediatric sibling donors; psychosocial adjustment

Introduction
Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is an aggressive and demanding medical therapy with an unpredictable