Over 18,500 Americans are diagnosed each year with blood cancers. For years, physicians have been treating these patients with bone marrow transplants, replacing diseased blood stem cells with healthy ones. The bone marrow comes from living donors, which limits availability.
In April, multidisciplinary team with the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine performed Alabama’s first deceased-donor bone marrow transplant, an innovative approach that increases the access to finding a suitable donor in time. Omer Jamy, MBBS and his team led the procedure in collaboration with specialists across leukemia care, radiation oncology, transplant coordination and cellular therapy.
“Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation can be curative for many patients, but one of the biggest limitations has always been timely donor availability,” said Jamy, associate professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and medical director of the Clinical Trials office at the UAB O’Neal Cancer Center. “This innovative approach allows us to move forward when living-donor options are unavailable, saving critical time for patients with urgent needs.”
Stem cells from deceased donors can be collected, preserved and made readily available, which will reduce delays and offer transplants when timing is critical.
This is a very new procedure. The first one was done at the University of Utah Health in May 2025.
“This advance reflects our commitment to ensuring more patients have access to curative therapies when they need them most,” Jamy said. “Expanding the donor pool helps us reach patients who may not otherwise have a viable option. So with deceased donors added to the donation pool, every patient needing a bone marrow transplant should be able to receive one.”