Description of Research Expertise

Allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation is the only potentially curative option for patients with relapsed, refractory, or high-risk hematologic malignancies. Unfortunately, only a third of patients have an available HLA-matched related donor. Partially HLA-mismatched related (HLA-haploidentical) transplantation allows identification of a donor for the vast majority of patients. In the past, HLA-haploidentical transplantation was associated with excessive nonrelapse mortality and poor overall survival. My research has contributed to the understanding of a novel technique that utilizes post-transplant cyclophosphamide as graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis after HLA-haploidentical transplantation. Using risk stratification with the disease risk index developed by Armand et al., I demonstrated that outcomes after nonmyeloablative HLA-haploidentical transplantation are comparable to that after reduced intensity HLA-matched transplantation. Similar to my work in older patients described above, I have also shown that nonmyeloablative HLA-haploidentical transplantation is safe and effective for pediatric and young adult patients. In addition, I have contributed to research examining early biomarkers, such as ST2, as predictors of nonrelapse mortality after HLA-haploidentical transplantation. Finally, to improve outcomes further, I have conducted research to examine the association of donor characteristics with transplantation outcomes. I showed that parent donors were associated with more graft failure when compared with sibling or offspring donors, but that survival was no different. Importantly, in that analysis, survival was affected by recipient age with recipients over 55 having inferior survival to younger patients. This work supports my proposed research agenda to evaluate the utility of the frailty phenotype tools to predict an older patient’s risk of nonrelapse mortality after induction chemotherapy and allogeneic transplantation as discussed in this proposal. Finally, my research has contributed to the widespread adoption of HLA-haploidentical transplantation with post-transplant cyclophosphamide, I have advanced the understanding of how we can improve its outcomes further, and I hope to continue to advance the field through studying frailty phenotype assessments in older patients with leukemia and myeloid malignancies undergoing induction then consolidative allogeneic transplantation.

Selected Publications

Sorror, M... McCurdy SR, ... Artz, A.: The Composite Health Risk Assessment Model (CHARM) Predicts Risks of Toxicities, Functional and Cognitive Decline Among Survivors of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (allo-HCT): A Prospective BMT-CTN Study 1704 American Society of Hematology Annual Meetings, San Diego, CA. : 2024.

Takeshi Onoue, Azin Vakilpour, Yu Kang, Benedicte Lefebvre, Amanda Smith, Shannon R. McCurdy, Joseph R. Carver, Michael Fradley, Jesse Chittams, and Marielle Scherrer-Crosbie: Cardiotoxicity of Venetoclax in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Comparison with Anthracyclines Journal of the American College of Cardiology/American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA. 83 (13): 2024.

Bhagwat AS, Torres L, Shestova O, Shestov M, Mellors PW, Fisher HR, Farooki SN, Frost BF, Loken MR, Gaymon AL, Frazee D, Rogal W, Frey N, Hexner EO, Luger SM, Loren AW, Martin ME, McCurdy SR, Perl AE, Stadtmauer EA, Brogdon JL, Fraietta JA, Hwang WT, Siegel DL, Plesa G, Aplenc R, Porter DL, June CH, Gill SI.: Cytokine-mediated CAR T therapy resistance in AML Nat Med : 2024.

Kang Y, Lefebvre B, Pamies IM, Gill SI, Doucette AG, Denduluri S, Smith AM, McCurdy S, Luger S, Carver J, Scherrer-Crosbie M.: Symptomatic Heart Failure and Clonal Hematopoiesis-Related Mutations in Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia Am J Cardiol 226 : 9-17,2024.

Kongtim P, Vittayawacharin P, Zou J, Srour S, Shaffer B, Shapiro RM, Varma A, McGuirk J, Dholaria BR, McCurdy SR, DeZern AE, Bejanyan N, Bashey A, Furst S, Castagna L, Mariotti J, Ruggeri A, Bailen R, Teshima T, Xiao-Jun H, Bonfim C, Aung F, Cao K, Carpenter PA, Hamadani M, Askar M, Fernandez-Vina M, Girnita A, Ciurea SO.: ASTCT Consensus Recommendations on Testing and Treatment of Patients with Donor-specific Anti-HLA Antibodies Journal of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy 10:S2666-6367 (24): 00654-7.,2024.

Matthew P. Connor, Neeharika Prathapa, Noelle V. Frey, Saar I. Gill, Elizabeth O. Hexner, Ximena Jordan Bruno, Catherine E. Lai, Alison W. Loren, Selina M. Luger, Andrew H. Matthews, Shannon R. McCurdy, Alexander E Perl, David L. Porter, Arlene Zeringue, Joseph H. Oved, Timothy S. Olson, Keith W. Pratz, Daria V. Babushok: Hypomethylating agents are associated with high rates of hematologic toxicity in patients with secondary myeloid neoplasms developing after acquired aplastic anemia Haematologica 109 (8): 2732-2737,2024.

Jeremy Schmoyer, Ashley D. Hadjis, Griffin W. White, Catherine Lai, and Shannon R. McCurdy: Association of Fried’s frailty phenotype, but not the clinical frailty scale, with overall survival in older adults with acute myeloid leukemia. American Society of Clinical Oncology/American Society of Clinical Oncology, Chicago, IL. 42 (16): 2024.

Brendan L. Mangan, PharmD, Clark DuMontier, MD, Judith O. Hopkins, MD, Gregory A. Abel, MD, and Shannon R. McCurdy, MD: Tailoring Therapy in Older Adults with Hematologic Malignancies American Society of Clinical Oncology, Education Book 44 (3): e432220.,2024.

Pashna Munshi and Shannon R. McCurdy: Age Barriers in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Raising the Silver Curtain American Journal of Hematology 99 (5): 922-937,2024.

Ashley D. Hadjis and Shannon R. McCurdy: The role and novel use of natural killer cells in graft-versus-leukemia reactions after allogeneic transplantation Frontiers in Immunology 15 : 1358668,2024.

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Academic Contact Information

Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
3400 Civic Center Blvd
12 South Pavilion

Philadelphia, PA 19104
Patient appointments: 800-789-7366