Bone marrow donors needn’t be perfect match, study says, paving way for more equitable access
As a hematologist-oncologist in Miami, Mikkael Sekeres always hopes his patients will find a perfect match for the bone marrow transplant they need to save their lives — but he doesn’t expect it. Most of his patients are Latino or African American, and rates of perfect matches are much lower for racial or ethnic minorities.
That gloomy picture could soon change. A study published Wednesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that certain unmatched donors, or people whose bone marrow does not as closely resemble that of the patient’s, provided similar outcomes as matched donors so long as patients receive a key drug called cyclophosphamide to prevent dangerous complications. That suggests that patients who need transplant might be able to safely consider both matched and some unmatched donors, vastly expanding the pool of potential acceptable donors for all patients, though particularly those of African, Latino, or Asian ancestry.
