A new way of using umbilical cord blood — by pooling blood from multiple donors — could make it easier to receive a stem cell transplant for leukemia, a new study says.
Nearly everyone in a small group of patients who received these pooled transplants survived at least one year without severe signs of rejection, researchers reported April 27 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
“This is the first time transplant patients received cells from what amounts to nine different human beings,” lead researcher Dr. Filippo Milano, director of the Cord Blood Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, said in a news release.
Umbilical cord blood donations can help patients with blood cancer or other blood diseases who need a stem cell transplant, which essentially creates a healthy reset for a person’s blood-producing bone marrow.
Stem cells in cord blood do not have to be as stringently matched to be safe and effective, making them a good option for people who lack a close donor match, researchers said.
However, the number of cells in a single unit of donated cord blood is often too small to help any given patient, researchers said.
For this trial, researchers created a new stem cell product called dilanubicel (Deverra Therapeutics), which combines blood stem cells isolated from six to eight different units of donated cord blood. Those stem cells are nurtured in a lab and allowed to grow and expand before they are infused into a patient.
The team recruited 28 patients with leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome — two types of blood cancer — to receive dilanubicel along with a single unit of cord blood.
Results showed that 27 of the 28 patients survived at least one year, with none experiencing severe symptoms related to rejection of the transplant.
One patient died, and another relapsed nearly a year after the transplant and received another treatment. That patient is now at least a year into remission.
Researchers found that the pooled stem cells did not engraft long-term into the patient’s bone marrow, but they provided essential early immune support. A week after transplant, the patients’ blood consistently showed recovery driven by dilanubicel.
“The cells from the pooled donor stem cell product did not remain long term, but they all helped the matched cord blood donor establish a new, healthy immune system in the patient,” Milano said.
Researchers are now seeking additional funding for follow-up clinical trials that include more patients.
“Cord blood continues to be an important option for people who need a stem cell transplant, especially those with high-risk disease,” Milano said.
Black Americans are less likely to find matched unrelated donors in registries due to both underrepresentation in donor registries and greater HLA diversity. As a result, they face lower rates of transplant access, delays in care, and, in some cases, ineligibility for potentially curative therapy.
Despite a higher incidence of certain hematologic malignancies — particularly multiple myeloma, which occurs at roughly twice the rate seen in white individuals — Black patients are less likely to undergo stem cell transplantation and experience worse outcomes.
Research shows that Black patients with leukemia are approximately 51-53 percent less likely to undergo hematopoietic stem cell transplant, while those with lymphoma are 34-45 percent as likely as white patients to receive the procedure.
For providers, early consideration of alternative donor sources is critical when treating Black patients who may be less likely to have a matched unrelated donor.
Patient selection criteria can include:
In this study, pooled cord blood transplantation was associated with earlier immune recovery (often within 30-60 days), which may reduce the risk of infection during a critical post-transplant window.
Pooled cord blood transplantation may improve early outcomes and reduce complications in patients with leukemia, while also expanding access for those without matched donors. For Black patients — who are disproportionately affected by donor availability gaps — this approach could help address a longstanding barrier to transplant. Larger trials are needed, but these findings signal a meaningful step toward more equitable access to curative therapies.
More information
The Cleveland Clinic has more about myelodysplastic syndrome.
SOURCES: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, news release, April 27, 2026; Journal of Clinical
Oncology, April 27, 2026
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