December 16, 2024 – The international non-profit organization DKMS has set itself the goal of giving people with blood cancer a second chance at life – and doing so even faster. For this, it has built a new and efficient infrastructure for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: at the center is the DKMS Stem Cell Bank, where surplus adult stem cells are cryopreserved and stored as Adult Donor Cryopreserved Units (ADCUs). These ADCUs are then made available for patients and transplantation centers worldwide for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. One year after the first ADCU was stored, the first patient was able to benefit from one of these cryopreserved donations.

Every 27 seconds, someone in the world is diagnosed with a blood cancer or a blood disorder. Despite the growing donor pool, transplantation centers are still facing challenges: the search for an unrelated donor until the subsequent transplantation is a race against time. And even after an initial treatment, a further transplant may be needed, requiring another donation. A second donation is not a single case. Generally, about one in 30 donors donates stem cells for a second time, mostly for the same patient.

In either case – the faster a suitable donor is identified and the faster the hematopoietic stem cells reach the patient, the better the chance of survival. But even when a match is found, it can take up to 12 weeks before a transplantation takes place. This urgent need was the initial motivation for extending activities to process and store Adult Donor Cryopreserved Units (ADCUs). These ADCUs should be accessible to transplantation centers and patients more quickly. If a suitable ADCU is already stored at the DKMS Stem Cell Bank, recipients will benefit from a full availability within a few days.

First ADCU transplantation

The first transplantation of such an ADCU from the DKMS Stem Cell Bank showed that this is not just theory. The patient received this ADCU as a stem cell boost. The stem cell unit used was cryopreserved and stored at the time of the first transplantation. That the cells have already been available in the DKMS Stem Cell Bank had many advantages: the confirmatory typing and preliminary examination of the donor material had already been carried out, only a few days passed between the request and the transplantation, the shipment was extremely fast and the donation arrived at the transplantation center in the appropriate quality. As a result, the patient received the stem cell boost he needed as soon as possible. At the same time, the donor did not have to undergo the mobilization and apheresis process again, since a second donation was not necessary – two stem cell grafts were obtained from a single collection, and both have now been used.

The first milestone on the journey of the ADCUs has thus been reached. “The whole team in Dresden was very happy about this first stem cell transplantation from the DKMS Stem Cell Bank. The delivery process from the cryotank to the patient and the transplantation went smoothly, but now we have to keep our fingers crossed. We truly hope that the treatment will now have the desired effect,” said Dr. Alexander Platz, Medical Director of the DKMS Stem Cell Bank.

Two stem cell grafts from a single collection

To date, the ADCU approach is worldwide unique, uncomplicated and ethically acceptable towards the donors, thus making a significant contribution to the further development of stem cell transplantation. The goal of this innovative approach is to provide two stem cell grafts with one donation:

• directed donation to a patient in immediate need of a stem cell transplant (PBSC)

• non-directed ADCU for future immediate availability for any patient

ADCUs therefore play an important role, especially for patients with urgent needs, since their use significantly shortens the time to transplantation. For cryopreserved stem cells, the time from initial consultation to transport to the clinic is typically no more than three days. Even if the initial donor is not available at short notice, ADCUs can be an alternative. “This is another important milestone in our lifesaving mission, we are thus significantly increasing the chances of survival for patients in urgent need of a transplant,” said Dr. Elke Neujahr, Global CEO of DKMS Group gGmbH.

At the moment, 100 ADCUs are already stored at the DKMS Stem Cell Bank in Dresden and can be requested by transplantation centers through the DKMS Registry. They are also listed in the database of the Central Bone Marrow Donor Registry Germany (ZKRD) and can be requested by transplantation centers there as well. DKMS is now working on to gradually increase the number of ADCUs and rapidly build up the inventory. The available ADCUs guarantee a one hundred percent availability to be faster in the race against blood cancer in the future.

The DKMS Life Science Lab, the Clinical Trials Unit, the DKMS Collection Center and the Collaborative Biobank are further facilities that contribute to research and development in the field of stem cell donation in the science hub of Dresden, Germany.

In this case, the DKMS does not disclose any further information in order to maintain anonymity. Patients should be given the opportunity to fully concentrate on themselves and their recovery during this physically and mentally difficult time. Only after a two-year period and with the consent of both parties can anonymity be rescinded.