Novel risk score for cardiovascular complications after bone marrow transplant

While lifesaving, bone marrow transplants can affect various organs, including the cardiovascular system. Researchers led by Michigan Medicine have not only determined the contemporary prevalence of cardiovascular complications after bone marrow transplant — they developed a novel tool to predict a person’s risk for such problems following the procedure and help guide the pre-transplant process.The work formed the basis of a scientific statement published by the American Health Association geared towards the cardiovascular management of patients undergoing bone marrow transplant.

Antibody Treatment Prevents Graft Versus Host Disease, a Major Bone Marrow Transplant Complication, in Advanced Preclinical Tests

An experimental antibody treatment largely prevented a bone marrow transplant complication called graft versus host disease (GVHD) in the intestines, without causing broad immune suppression, in a preclinical study led by researchers from Penn Medicine and Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and published today in Science Translational Medicine.

CHOP Researchers Develop Tool that Reduces Errors in Stem Cell Transplant Reporting

Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed a custom-built application to automate determination of engraftment, a key outcome after hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). The application supersedes a tedious manual process and at the same time substantially improves accuracy of reported hematopoietic cell transplant engraftments.

A Leading-Edge Lymphoma Program

Less than three years after joining the Cedars-Sinai Cancer faculty, hematologist-oncologists Justin Darrah, MD, and Akil Merchant, MD, are pioneering new research and bringing a new, comprehensive set of treatment options to patients in the recently established Lymphoma Program.

Mount Sinai Researchers Find New, Safer Treatment for Serious Side Effect of Bone Marrow Transplant

Researchers at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai have identified a treatment that is effective and safer than the standard of care for a serious, and sometimes fatal, side effect of bone marrow transplant in cancer patients. Results from a phase 2 clinical trial were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in December.

New Chief of Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapies Named to New Jersey’s Only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center

Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and RWJBarnabas Health have appointed Ira Braunschweig, MD, as chief, Section of Transplant and Cell Therapy at Rutgers Cancer Institute, chief of the Transplant and Cell Therapy Service of the RWJBarnabas Health Oncology Service Line, and director for Cell Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplantation at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, an RWJBarnabas facility.

New technique may lead to safer stem cell transplants

Studying mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a method of stem cell transplantation that does not require radiation or chemotherapy. Instead, the strategy takes an immunotherapeutic approach, combining the targeted elimination of blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow with immune-modulating drugs to prevent the immune system from rejecting the new donor stem cells.

Key Pathway for Activated T-cells Might Be Targeted to Fight GVHD

The study demonstrates that T cell activation increases intracellular trafficking via the endoplasmic-reticulum-to-Golgi pathway, and that a protein known as SEC23B — a subunit of the COPII complex — regulates T cells’ production of these important secretory proteins after activation. The work points toward a new potential therapeutic target for decreasing the severity of graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD), a potentially fatal complication of bone marrow transplantation.

Researchers awarded over $11 million to study multi-drug resistant infection factors

A study aimed at better understanding why some critically ill patients develop multidrug-resistant infections is underway by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The multi-institution study will enroll patients at Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Roswell Park Study: Delaying Antiviral Treatment May Boost Immunity in Stem Cell Transplant Recipients

Patients who develop cytomegalovirus infections after allogeneic stem cell transplantation may be able to develop an immunity against the virus, strengthen their immune system and reduce reliance on strong antiviral medications, a team from Roswell Park reports in the journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Memorial Sloan Kettering – Hackensack Meridian Health Partnership Announces Funding for Inaugural Immunology Research Collaboration Projects

The Memorial Sloan Kettering – Hackensack Meridian Health Partnership has formed an Immunology Research Collaboration, through which researchers can apply for funding to support innovative investigations to explore the power of the immune system and ways it may be harnessed to fight cancer. Three researchers’ projects were selected in 2020 for funding support.

Study Reveals New Way to Treat Stroke Using an Already FDA-Approved Drug

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) is currently used to treat neutropenia due to chemotherapy and has been successfully used for patients who require bone marrow transplants. The study is the first to report on the neuroprotective effect of GCSF in vivo and showed that it improved neurological deficits that occur in the first few days following cerebral ischemia. GCSF improved long-term behavioral outcomes while also stimulating a neural progenitor recovery response in a mouse model.

Mutations in donors’ stem cells may cause problems for cancer patients

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that extremely rare, harmful genetic mutations present in healthy donors’ stem cells — though not causing health problems in the donors — may be passed on to cancer patients receiving stem cell transplants, potentially creating health problems for the recipients. Among the concerns are heart damage, graft-versus-host disease and possible new leukemias.

New NCCN Guidelines Debut to Manage Complications and Improve Readiness for Stem Cell Transplant Recipients

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) published new NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, (aka stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplant), with step-by-step information on best practices for this blood cancer treatment