Historic Deceased-Donor Stem Cell Transplant Holds Promise for People with Blood Disease

DETROIT – A 68-year-old African American woman from Flint, Mich. who suffers from leukemia and is one of the first people in the world to ever successfully receive a bone marrow transplant from a deceased human donor. Her case may play a key role in providing better outcomes for the thousands of people in the United States who are diagnosed each year with blood cancers and depend on stem cell transplant to save their lives. 

In a city like Detroit, where 76% of the population is Black, the inability to find a matching bone marrow donor prevents many patients from getting life-saving treatment. Henry Ford’s successful deceased bone marrow transplant is a pioneering achievement in the field of transplant medicine that could set a precedent for future treatments.

“For patients with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia and other life-threatening diseases, stem cell transplant is often the best chance for recovery,” said Dr. Muneer Abidi, who led the transplant team that performed the milestone procedure at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. “Unfortunately, particularly for minority patients, living donors are very difficult to identify.” 

During a bone marrow transplant doctors infuse healthy blood-forming stem cells into a patient’s body to replace bone marrow that's not producing enough healthy blood cells. 

Seventy percent of patients who need a transplant don’t have a donor match in their family. Depending on a patient’s ethnic background, the chance of finding a match through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), is between 29% and 79%. Black or African American patients face the toughest odds, with just a 29% chance of finding a match. Overall, up to 45% of those seeking a transplant find themselves unable to receive one in time. 

This breakthrough particularly benefits minority populations who have historically faced significant challenges in finding donor matches due to genetic diversity. 

“The ability to transplant bone marrow from a deceased donor presents a whole new set of opportunities for our patients,” said Dr. Abidi, who serves as medical director for stem cell transplant and cellular therapy and director of the stem cell laboratory at Henry Ford Health.  

In the historic case performed by Dr. Abidi and the Henry Ford team in June, the deceased donor cells were made available through the HOPE compassionate program – an initiative by Ossium Health that gives patients around the world access to Ossium’s bone marrow. Henry Ford also is collaborating with Ossium and NMDP on opening a Phase I/II clinical trial at Henry Ford Health.  

The patient was undergoing chemotherapy that would not cure her leukemia. Doctors agreed a successful bone marrow transplant was her best chance of survival. 

“This trial is mainly intended for patients who are in urgent need of a transplant, or the team is unable to find a match donor. Both were true in the case of our patient. The deceased bone marrow was the only option for her at that point,” Dr. Abidi said.  

Ossium Health uses proprietary technology to remove bone marrow from a deceased organ donor’s spine. The bone marrow is cryogenically preserved at a laboratory in Indianapolis and available for immediate shipment and transplant. This cutting-edge technology has the potential to change standard practices in stem cell transplants. 

According to Dr. Josephine N. Emole, the Henry Ford Health Stem Cell transplant physician who is leading the patient’s care team, the patient has accepted the new bone marrow and blood tests are good. She continues to recover from immediate post-transplant complications related to standard of care – which is normal for every transplant patient.  

“She has just started the journey towards her cure and the outlook is encouraging,” Dr. Emole said. “I consider it a great honor to be entrusted daily with the care of all patients that come to our stem cell transplant program. For this patient, it feels particularly rewarding to see that the hard work by our team to provide both routine and innovative care have yielded such significant results.”  

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