Dr. Asad Bashey, Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program, was the lead author of a transformative study published in Blood Advances: “Donor-Specific Transplant Outcomes from BMT CTN 1702: A Multicenter Prospective Biological-Assignment Trial.” The study provides important prospective data on survival outcomes associated with different donor types for allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

The large, multicenter study evaluated 1,179 patients who underwent transplantation with either an 8/8 HLA-matched unrelated donor (MUD), a haploidentical related donor, a mismatched unrelated donor, or umbilical cord blood.

Key Findings

• Haploidentical transplantation produced outcomes comparable to matched unrelated donor transplantation. After adjustment for relevant clinical factors, survival and several other major transplant outcomes were not significantly different between haploidentical and MUD transplantation.

• Mismatched unrelated donor transplantation also demonstrated outcomes comparable to MUD transplantation in the study.

• Umbilical cord blood transplantation was associated with inferior outcomes compared with MUD transplantation, including lower survival, higher treatment-related mortality, and inferior disease-free survival.

Conclusions

• Haploidentical or mismatched unrelated donors can be effectively used to expedite transplantation when finding a matched unrelated donor is unlikely.

Northside Hospital’s longstanding commitment to innovation in transplantation has helped make advanced donor options more accessible to patients throughout Metro Atlanta and beyond, offering more patients with blood cancers the opportunity to pursue potentially life-saving cellular therapy.