CIBMTR Ranks Cedars-Sinai Cancer Among Top Transplant Programs in the U.S.

The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) named the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program in the Division of Hematology and Cellular Therapy at Cedars-Sinai Cancer in Los Angeles among the top transplant programs in the U.S. This is the fifth consecutive year Cedars-Sinai has earned this distinction.

CIBMTR is a nationally funded research collaboration between the Medical College of Wisconsin and the National Marrow Donor Program. The center collects and analyzes data from over 300 transplant centers throughout the world to determine patient outcomes after bone marrow transplantation or cell therapy.

Cedars-Sinai was one of 12 among 172 adult transplant centers in the U.S. with a one-year patient post-transplant survival rate above the expected outcome. In 2024, the survival rate for Cedars-Sinai was 90% versus the expected rate of 68% to 83%.

Ronald Paquette, M.D., clinical director of the Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Transplant program at Cedars-Sinai, attributes these outcomes to a series of changes implemented over the past several years at the transplant center. A significant change Paquette highlights is the addition of cyclophosphamide as routine post-transplant therapy for each patient to help prevent graft-versus-host disease. This modification alone resulted in a 20% improvement in one-year survival rates, according to Paquette.

Another change the center has made has involved adjustments to pre-transplantation conditioning regimens designed to ablate the patient’s cancerous bone marrow cells to make room for the transplanted stem cells. Some of these regimens are prone to toxicities, but Cedar-Sinai’s transplant team has discovered that using conditioning regimens more compatible with cyclophosphamide reduces the risk for excessive toxicities.

“There are many possible combinations, and we initially tried to match the conditioning therapy to each patient’s specific disease scenario,” Paquette said in a news release. “What we have learned by carefully tracking patient outcomes is that it is more important to choose a regimen that pairs well with the posttransplant cyclophosphamide,” he added.

Lastly, the center has migrated toward using more half-matched donors, also called haploidentical donors, instead of fully-matched donors. Transplantations involving half-matched donors now make up 85% of the center’s transplants. Half-matched donors are typically close family members, such as parents, children, or siblings. Less commonly, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren may be half-matched donors.

The average age for transplant patients at Cedars-Sinai is between 68 and 70 years. Half-matched donors for these older patients might be half their age. Paquette notes that patients receiving transplants from younger donors have considerably better outcomes than those matched with older donors.

He said the center continues to refine its process, and they are working to develop options for offering transplants to a broader range of patients. They also want to better understand the interaction between stem cells and host bone marrow and the effects of intestinal bacteria on the transplant process.

“Our current process is producing great outcomes, and through strategic steps we are continuing to refine it,” Paquette said. “Through all of these efforts, we hope to learn things that will help us further improve therapies in the future.”