A new Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center study may lead to more transplant options for blood cancer patients, according to an announcement.

The researchers found that certain “younger donors with greater genetic mismatches” can be used, instead of only close match donors. These favorable findings came from an assessment of 268 adult participants from the ACCESS trial. Each underwent allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation using peripheral blood stem cells from mismatched unrelated donors and received PTCy. It is important to note that the donors were all aged 18-35.

Participants who received the more mismatched donor grafts had an overall survival rate of 85.6%, while those who received 7/8 matched grafts only had a 78.6% survival rate one year post-transplant. Neither group had high severe acute and chronic GVHD rates.

Sylvester Cancer Center has already started implementing the findings into clinical practice, utilizing mismatched unrelated donors for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Additionally, “the researchers caution that longer follow-up is needed to understand long-term survival, relapse and chronic GVHD outcomes.”