Early Chimerism Following Allogeneic Stem-Cell Transplant

Allogeneic stem cell transplant (allo-SCT) is a common treatment for variety of blood
cancers. To determine how much of your cells are from your donor after transplant, doctors
complete a "chimerism analysis" or a test of your cells to look at the DNA. Chimerism testing
helps doctors predict graft rejection or recurrence of disease. Doctors at NCCC do chimerism
testing routinely and it is usually done between 30 and 100 days after transplantation. The
researchers believe that analyzing chimerism sooner than 30 days after transplant may help
identify problems earlier, get patients treatment sooner, and increase the chances of a
successful transplant.

The purpose of this study is to find out if doing chimerism testing earlier than the
traditional approach is better for patient outcomes (about 14 days after transplantation
rather than 30+ days). We hope the information gained from this study can be used to help
prevent some post-transplant complications such as graft loss, graft-versus-host disease, or
even relapse for future patients.

Also, the researchers hope to learn more about chimerism testing of cells of patients with
haploidentical donors (donors who are only a "half-match" - such as a parent or child of the
recipient), because there have not been many chimerism analysis studies done in this
population