From March 22 to 25, 2026, the 52nd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) was held in Madrid, Spain. As one of the most influential conferences in the field, the meeting brought together thousands of experts worldwide to discuss the latest advances in transplantation and cellular therapy. During the congress, Dr. Yishan Ye from the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, presented an oral report titled “Haploidentical Donors Confer Superior Outcomes Compared with Matched Sibling Donors in AML Patients Transplanted in MRD-Positive Complete Remission: A Study from the EBMT Global Committee and ALWP.” This study provides important evidence to guide donor selection strategies before transplantation. Hematology Frontier invited Dr. Ye to share insights into the key findings and their implications for clinical practice and future research.
Q1
Your EBMT multicenter study specifically compared outcomes between haploidentical transplantation and matched sibling transplantation in MRD-positive AML patients. What clinical observations or hypotheses led your team to explore whether haploidentical donors might be superior in this setting?
Dr. Yishan Ye:
At this year’s EBMT meeting, our team led by Professor He Huang presented seven oral reports and eleven posters. I was honored to participate as a member of this team.
In collaboration with EBMT, we conducted a large multicenter retrospective study to evaluate the impact of donor type and conditioning intensity on outcomes in AML patients with measurable residual disease (MRD) positivity before transplantation. The study included more than 3,000 patients from over 200 centers worldwide and compared different transplant strategies, including haploidentical donors, myeloablative conditioning, and reduced-intensity conditioning.
The results showed that, compared with myeloablative or reduced-intensity conditioning approaches, haploidentical transplantation was associated with a stronger graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect, leading to a significantly lower relapse rate after transplantation. Further analyses demonstrated a clear survival benefit in patients receiving haploidentical transplantation.
We focused on MRD-positive AML patients because this population carries an extremely high risk of relapse after transplantation. Previous studies have shown that their prognosis is comparable to patients with overt morphological relapse, placing them in a very high-risk category. Based on our findings, we believe that the enhanced GVL effect associated with haploidentical transplantation is likely the key mechanism underlying its superior outcomes in this group.
Q2
This study included more than 3,000 MRD-positive AML patients in remission. Could you summarize the key findings and explain how they may influence clinical guidelines and daily practice?
Dr. Yishan Ye:
The main conclusion of our study is that, for AML patients who are MRD-positive before transplantation, haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation induces a stronger GVL effect compared with matched transplantation using either myeloablative or reduced-intensity conditioning. This translates into a significantly reduced relapse rate.
Importantly, compared with myeloablative matched transplantation, haploidentical transplantation also demonstrated a clear survival benefit. However, it is essential to emphasize that this was a retrospective analysis. Although statistical methods were used to minimize confounding factors, differences in baseline characteristics and treatment details between groups may still exist. Therefore, these findings need to be confirmed in well-designed, large-scale prospective clinical trials.
Nevertheless, our results suggest that, for this very high-risk population of MRD-positive AML patients, prioritizing haploidentical donors—when feasible—may represent a promising treatment strategy. The core rationale is to leverage the stronger GVL effect of haploidentical transplantation to eradicate residual disease and overcome one of the major causes of treatment failure.
As is well known, post-transplant relapse remains the leading threat to long-term survival in high-risk AML. Our study provides new evidence supporting donor selection and transplant strategy optimization as key approaches to enhancing GVL and addressing relapse.
Q3
At this year’s EBMT meeting, “precision transplantation” and “risk stratification” were major themes. Based on your experience, how do you see donor selection evolving in the future? Were there other studies that impressed you?
Dr. Yishan Ye:
After more than 50 years of development, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, as a classical medical approach, is now entering a new era of innovation. In this evolution, “precision transplantation” has become a central strategic direction.
Today, precision extends across multiple dimensions. First, donor selection is becoming more refined, with optimized strategies aimed at improving both safety and efficacy. Second, the prevention and management of post-transplant relapse are moving toward individualized interventions based on risk stratification. In addition, strategies for graft-versus-host disease prevention are becoming increasingly sophisticated, seeking to balance disease control with minimization of complications.
Overall, the research presented at recent EBMT meetings reflects a flourishing landscape of innovation in precision transplantation. All these efforts ultimately aim toward a shared goal: delivering individualized, optimized treatment strategies that maximize patient benefit, improve overall survival, and reduce complications. This remains the direction we will continue to pursue.
Expert Profile
Dr. Yishan Ye
First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine
Dr. Ye is an Associate Researcher and Master’s Supervisor at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. He has been recognized as a high-level health talent in Zhejiang Province.
He has led one key international collaborative research project under the National Key R&D Program of China and one project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
As first or corresponding author (including co-authorship), he has published more than 10 high-impact papers in leading journals such as Blood, Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, Journal of Hematology & Oncology, Blood Cancer Journal, American Journal of Hematology, and Cell Discovery. He also serves on the editorial board of Bone Marrow Transplantation.
Dr. Ye has been invited to present at major international conferences, including four oral presentations at ASH and multiple invited talks at EBMT. He has received the EBMT Best Oral Abstract Award for three consecutive years (2023–2025).
He currently serves as Research Coordinator for the EBMT China Office and as a Young Ambassador of the International Academy for Clinical Hematology (IACH), and holds positions in several national academic societies.
