New tool predicts risk of long-term effects after transplant

​​​A new tool helps doctors predict which patients are likely to have serious problems after transplant. 

This tool, called BIOPREVENT, helps doctors: 

• Watch closely patients who are likely to have problems 
• Start treatment sooner to prevent problems 

Blood or marrow transplant can cure blood cancers and diseases. But sometimes, donated cells mistakenly attack the patient’s body. This causes graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Chronic GVHD is a type of GVHD that can be serious and disabling in some cases. 

BIOPREVENT calculates a patient’s chance of developing chronic CGVHD after transplant. Researchers studied 1,300 patients who had blood or marrow transplant. The researchers used computer programs, called machine learning, to create the tool. BIOPREVENT is free online:  bio-prevent.nmdp.org. 

Researchers found that people who had chronic GVHD differed from healthier patients. The groups differed in: 

• Age 
• Biomarkers (proteins in the blood) 3 months after transplant 
• Disease 
• How closely the donor matched the patient (genes and sex) 
• Medicines used before and after transplant 
• Type of transplant cells 
• Whether the patient had early, or acute, GVHD 3 months after transplant 

Keep in mind

The study included patients in the US only. Some patients got transplant as early as 2004. Some treatments and medicines have changed since then. The BIOPREVENT tool needs to be tested in more recent patients. 

Also, the tool predicts the chance of chronic GVHD but cannot say for sure whether someone will get chronic GVHD. Your doctor is the best person to ask about your health. 

Learn more about

• What’s chronic GVHD? at NMDP.org 
• Clinical trials for chronic GVHD at CTsearchsupport.org 
• More online risk calculators at CIBMTR.org 
• NMDP Patient Support Center at NMDP.org or 1 (888) 999-6743 

BMTCTN.net

Source

Martens MJ, Dutta D, Yu Y, et al. The BIOPREVENT machine-learning algorithm predicts chronic graft-versus-host disease and mortality risk using posttransplant biomarkers. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2026 

Clinical trial IDs

BMT CTN 0201 and BMT CTN 1202 

Sponsor

Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network® (BMT CTN®) thanks study participants. BMT CTN, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and by the National Cancer Institute, is a collaborative effort of 19 core transplant centers/Consortia, the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), NMDP, and The Emmes Company. CIBMTR is a research collaboration of the Medical College of Wisconsin and NMDP. You may contact CIBMTR, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Suite N1400, Milwaukee, WI 53226; or call (414) 805-0700.