A new study from the UV Center for Cancer is helping people requiring stem cell transplants safely receive stem cells from mismatched and unrelated donors. For patients with diverse backgrounds often struggling to find an ideal match, it’s great news.

The drug strategy is called post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy)

Doctors used stem cells from blood (instead of bone marrow) and gave patients a powerful follow-up treatment with PTCy plus two other meds — tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil.

This resulted in solid survival rates a year later — about 84 percent for patients who had intense chemo, and 79 percent for those with gentler prep.

Most notably, serious cases of graft-versus-host disease — a nasty side effect where the new cells attack the patient’s body — stayed low.

Over 50 percent of patients in the study were from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups, proving this approach helps close the gap in transplant access.

The main takeaway is that a perfect match isn’t required anymore to have a strong shot at survival.

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