This is the scientific paper about BMT for thalassemia in adult patients, pubished in 1999:
http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/content/93/4/1164.longI summarize the most important facts of the abstract:
"107 adult patients with thalassemia aged from 17 through 35 years and transplanted from HLA-identical siblings between November 1988 and September 1996 were evaluated on December 31, 1997.
Of 107 patients, 69 survive between 1.5 and 9 years after transplantation. 66 of them do not have thalassemia and are identified as ex-thalassemic after BMT.
The youngest survivor is 20 years old, 6 are older than 30 years, and the oldest is 37 years of age.
Patients with chronic active hepatitis at the time of transplant were significantly more likely to die than patients without (P = .05; relative risk, 2.05). Marrow transplantation is a valid treatment option for older patients with thalassemia who have suitable donors".
I also paste a FAQ of the Cure Thalassemia website:
http://www.curethalassemia.org/faq/How old a thalassemia major patient can be to be successfully cured with a BMT?Thalassemic patients with a HLA identical donor has be transplanted as soon as possible,but the results in adult patients( age >17 years old) are not so brilliant.
Adult thalassemia patients are higher risk patients for transplant-related toxicity due to an advanced phase of disease and have a cure rate of 62% with current treatment protocol. BMT is not the best therapeutic option for adult patients
We are not aware of any more recent scientific paper on this topic, and we know adult patients who have recently successfully done BMT, but the risk is significantly higher compared to young patients