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‹ Sun · 16 Aug 2026
Novel or significantly improved treatment

Epigenetic Priming with Azacitidine Prior to Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Myeloid Malignancies.

Pre-transplant treatment with azacitidine showed encouraging survival outcomes and identified a molecular marker linking treatment response to relapse prevention in blood cancer patients.

This Phase II study (n=39) demonstrates azacitidine pre-transplant priming is feasible with encouraging OS/PFS, and pharmacodynamic data link azacitidine-induced CD34+ DNA hypomethylation to improved relapse-free survival—establishing an epigenetic biomarker hypothesis. Findings support randomized evaluation of epigenetic priming strategies in high-risk myeloid alloHCT.

What the study was

Study design
Open-label prospective Phase II study; azacitidine in reduced-intensity conditioning before alloHCT; pharmacodynamic CD34+ DNA methylation evaluation.
Population
39 patients with AML (85%) or high/very high-risk MDS (23% TP53-mutated) undergoing alloHCT (Weill Cornell Medicine).
Sample size
39
Category
Treatment Innovation
Maturity
Exploratory
Journal
Transplantation and Cellular Therapy

Why it surfaced

Prospective Phase II evidence for epigenetic priming in high-risk myeloid alloHCT with pharmacodynamic biomarker data; major unmet need for TP53-mutated disease.

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