Recent Research

Mehta R, et al.  – Research published in Transplantation and Cellular Therapy shows better outcomes for matched unrelated donor and matched sibling donor hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) than haploidentical donor HCT when using post-transplant cyclophosphamide for graft-versus-host disease prevention in a single center study.

Qayed M, et al.  – Research published in Blood Advances shows reductions in acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in both matched unrelated and mismatched unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (MUD and MMUD HCT) when abatacept is added to standard of care treatment. Effects were substantial in MMUD, revealing abatacept as another promising tool to expand HCT access to those without a fully matched donor, which is more common for racially and ethnically diverse patients. 

Battipaglia G, et al. – Research published in Bone Marrow Transplantation finds that less HLA mismatching is associated with better overall survival, non-relapse mortality, and leukemia-free survival when comparing one-antigen mismatched unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cell transplant to haploidentical donor HCT in the presence of post-transplant cyclophosphamide.

 

Gooptu M, et al., Blood—An observational study from the CIBMTR Graft Sources Working Committee found that 8/8 matched unrelated donor hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) with PTCy based graft versus host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis resulted in superior overall survival and disease-free survival compared to haploidentical HCT with PTCy in the reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) setting for treatment of acute leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes. It is the first known study that offers a direct comparison between the two donor sources using PTCy.

Use of MMUDs can expand HCT access for ethnically diverse populations.

Auletta J, et al., Transplantation and Cellular Therapy—A manuscript published in Transplantation and Cellular Therapy offered the first report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ability of the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP)/Be The Match® and the Network to safely deliver unrelated donor products early in the pandemic. The authors found that the NMDP/Be The Match and Network partners continued to effectively deliver domestic and unrelated donor products to allogeneic transplant patients in similar or shorter timeframes than before COVID-19, despite the many unexpected challenges brought about by the pandemic.