Join us in our mission of increasing equitable access to curative therapies for blood cancers and beyond.

We in the Cord Blood Transplant (CBT) Program ride not just for a cure. We ride for an accessible and inclusive cure for all. This August, our group will participate in the 2024 Fred Hutch Obliteride, a 25-, 50-, or 100- bike ride and 5k walk/run that raises funds for innovative research like ours at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that would not be possible without philanthropic donations. We ask that you join our team and ride, walk, or run alongside us in August or donate to our mission today!

*100% of every dollar raised will go directly to research efforts like ours at Fred Hutch.

About the CBT and Donor Accessibility:

Blood stem cell transplantation, a therapy pioneered at Fred Hutch, is a potentially lifesaving procedure for many individuals with certain cancers or other diseases that affect the blood and immune systems. However, not every patient will find a match for transplant, and are therefore unable to access care.

The CBT program uses alternative stem cell transplant sources to cure blood cancers when traditional treatments are not available. We aim to increase access to these therapies that often act as the only lifesaving option left for our pediatric and adult patients.

Disparities in Access to Acceptable Matches:

For racial and ethnic minorities, finding a suitable match for transplant acts as a barrier to curative care. Despite increased knowledge and publicity of the Bone Marrow Donor Program and Transplant Registries, there is still an unresolved racial disparity in donor access, and non-white patients face additional barriers to curative care than non-Hispanic white individuals.

According to Be The Match, the nation’s largest bone marrow registry, the chance of finding an unrelated matched donor is approximately:

• 29% for Black and African American people.
• 47% for Asian and Pacific Islander people.
• 48% for Latino or Hispanic people.
• 60% for Native American people.
• 79% for white people.

In lieu of these statistics, the CBT works to find and utilize alternative treatment sources that provide hope for a cure to a more diverse and inclusive population.

Improving Inclusive Access through the CBT Program:

The CBT Program’s recent demographic breakdown of patients receiving an umbilical cord transplant continues to show that more than 40% of our recipients identify with a race other than white. Typically, non-white individuals make up only 19% of clinical research populations in the US. With nearly 40% of Americans belonging to a racial or ethnic minority, we work to increase inclusive clinical research practices, curative approaches, and improvements in alternative treatments and outcomes for all cancer patients.

Our research focuses on two innovative, and increasingly accessible, sources for blood stem cell transplants: 

• Cord blood, which comes from umbilical cords that are donated after a baby is born (and would otherwise be discarded). This version of transplantation only takes about 25 mL, or less than one fluid ounce, of cord blood to be effective and has a higher probability of being a suitable match than traditional options. Cord blood can be banked, or stored for long periods of time, so it is ready to use when a patient needs a transplant. Cord blood is more readily available for all demographics and therefore increases accessibility to lifesaving approaches for racial and ethnic groups, and other individuals that would otherwise not proceed with transplant due to a lack of an adequate match.

• Haploidentical donors — or half-matches — are living close relatives, like a sibling, parent, or child. Donors go through a procedure similar to a traditional blood platelet donation that extracts stem cells from the blood. New techniques help overcome the challenges to the immune system when a match is not perfect. 

For patient stories and additional insights into our programs current research, please visit our official website at: https://www.fredhutch.org/en/research/divisions/clinical-research-division/research/cord-blood-program.html

Or view a short video from our director, Filippo Milano, on what we  do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvImzKmbPEc

Why We Ride:

We ride because cancer knows no bounds. With cancer remaining the 2nd leading cause of death in the US, it impacts almost everyone in our community and beyond. We go to work every day with the goal of increasing treatment options and providing patients with hope for a future. Thanks to Obliteride’s sponsors, 100% of every dollar raised will go directly to advancing the innovative research and treatment options at Fred Hutch and the CBT Program.

“Our work at the Hutch has had a tremendous impact within our community. I would like to continue providing opportunities to all patients in need and with limited therapeutic options. Your support with donations is crucial to continue our mission.”

- Filippo Milano, MD, PhD, hematologist and researcher, Director of the Cord Blood Transplant Program, Fred Hutch and UW Medicine