New Discoveries and Honors in Cancer Research

Colleen Delaney, MD, MSc (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ’07-’12) and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, developed a method for using umbilical cord stem cells as a source of donor material for transplant. This is important because the majority of patients in need of a hematopoietic-cell transplant do not have a matched related donor. The advance is particularly valuable for minorities and people of mixed-race background. The researchers reported that in patients at high risk of relapse after transplant, cord blood transplant recipients seem to have better outcomes against leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine and featured in the Washington Post.