Risk taking in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: are the risks of haemopoietic stem cell transplantation acceptable?

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Autologous haemopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), which carries defined risks of early treatment-related mortality (TRM), has recently been proposed as an experimental therapy for severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this study was to establish whether the risks of this approach are acceptable to patients with RA and whether risk taking related to disease-associated or personal/social parameters. METHODS: A standard gamble questionnaire was used to determine the acceptable risk of mortality for a potentially curative procedure in patients with RA aged 0.44 (84% of our sample), but allogeneic HSCT (with a TRM of 13.1%) would be acceptable only to severely disabled ..