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Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research

Clinical trial for mismatched transplant helps more people

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Patients who have low incomes or no matched donor get cancer care

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​​​Blood or marrow transplant (BMT) can cure blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. But many people don’t get BMT, because it: 

  • Takes months 
  • Is expensive 
  • Used to require a matched donor 

Clinical trials are one way that people can get access to this treatment. But many trials in the past did not allow mismatched donors. 

  • Scientists wanted to know whether allowing mismatched donors in clinical trials would help a wider variety of people get cancer treatment. People who are less likely to get BMT are often: 
  • Low-income 
  • Asian 
  • Black or African American 
  • Hispanic or Latino 
  • Indigenous American 
  • More than one race 

Scientists compared about 670 patients in 3 studies: 

  • The ACCESS clinical trial, which focused on mismatched BMT 
  • The PRO Protocol, which studies how patients think and feel 
  • BMT CTN 1703 clinical trial, which compared two drug combinations for preventing graft-versus-host disease after BMT and found the newer combination helps more patients stay healthy and relapse-free in the first year after BMT 

Patients who joined the ACCESS trial were more than 25 percentage points more likely to have diverse ancestry than patients in other trials. They also were more likely to: 

  • Have less education 
  • Have lower income 
  • Have Medicaid insurance 
  • Live in more vulnerable communities 

This showed that clinical trials with mismatched donors helped people who previously weren’t getting transplants. 

Keep in mind

Ask your doctor whether a clinical trial might be helpful for you.


What’s next


A new clinical trial ACCELERATE, focuses on mismatched BMT and making BMT available to as many patients as possible.

This plain-language summary was written by Jennifer Motl at the Medical College of Wisconsin and reviewed by Dr. R. Cusatis. ©2026 by CIBMTR, license CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Source

Cusatis R, Kou J, Bupp C, et al.  Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Access and  Patient Diversity. JAMA Network Open. 2026 May 1;9(5):e2610839. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.10839. PMC13147192.

About this research summary

This information is provided on behalf of the Consumer Advocacy Committee of Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). CIBMTR is a research collaboration between the Medical College of Wisconsin and NMDP.

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