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

Anthony D. Sung, Thuy Koll, Shannon H. Gier, Meagan Lew, Marcia Free, Lauren Bohannon, Alessandro Racioppi, Daria V. Babushok, Noelle V. Frey, Saar I. Gill, Elizabeth O. Hexner, MaryEllen Martin, Alexander E. Perl, Keith W. Pratz, Selina M. Luger, Edward A. Stadtmauer, David L. Porter, Alison W. Loren, Vijaya R. Bhatt, Phyllis Gimotty, Shannon R. McCurdy: Fried’s Frailty Phenotype Predicts Overall Survival for Older Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Recipients Transplant and Cellular Therapy Annual Meeting : 2021.

Danielle A. Cenin, Shwetha H. Manjunath, Colleen Timlin, Craig W. Freyer, Mitchell E. Hughes, Jacob A. Radcliff, John P. Plastaras, Shannon R. McCurdy: Characterizing the Incidence of Pneumonitis in Haploidentical vs. HLA-Matched Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants Receiving Total Body Irradiation Transplant and Cellular Therapy Annual Meeting : 2021.

Craig W. Freyer, Alison Carulli, Shannon Gier, Alex Ganetsky, Colleen Timlin, Mindy Schuster, Daria V. Babushok, Noelle V. Frey, Saar I. Gill, Elizabeth O. Hexner, James K. Mangan, Mary Ellen Martin, Shannon McCurdy, Alexander E. Perl, Keith W. Pratz, Jacqueline Smith, Selina M. Luger, Edward A. Stadtmauer, David L. Porter, Alison W. Loren: Letermovir vs. high dose valacyclovir for cytomegalovirus prophylaxis following haploidentical allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation Transplant and Cellular Therapy Annual Meeting : 2021.

Ephraim J. Fuchs, MD MBA, Shannon R McCurdy, MD, Scott R. Solomon, MD, Tao Wang, PhD, Michelle Kuxhausen, MS, Yvette L Kasamon, MD, MHD Monzr Al Malki, MD, Shahinaz Gadalla, MD PhD, Sophie Paczesny, MDPhD, Steven GE Marsh, BSc, PhD ARCS, Bronwen E. Shaw, PhD MRCP, FRCPath, Stephen R. Spellman, MS, Stephanie J. Lee, MDMPH, Effie Petersdorf, MD: Improving donor selection for haploidentical stem cell transplantation with post-transplant cyclophosphamide through selective HLA-mis/matching American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting 136 : 2020.

Danielle A Cenin, Craig W Freyer, Colin B Ligon, Selina M Luger, Shannon R McCurdy Mary Ellen Martin, Noelle V Frey: Tacrolimus induced pseudogout following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice : 2020.

Craig W Freyer, Alison Carulli, Alex Ganetsky, Mitchell E Hughes, Tracy M Krause, Colleen Timlin, Noelle V Frey, Saar I Gill, Elizabeth O Hexner, Alison W Loren, James K Mangan, Mary Ellen Martin, Shannon R McCurdy, Alexander E Perl, Keith Pratz, David L Porter, Selina M Luger: Venous thromboembolism following pegaspargase in adults receiving antithrombin supplementation Leukemia and Lymphoma : 2020.

Gee Youn (Geeny) Kim Jonathan Burns Craig W. Freyer Keith W. Hamilton Noelle V. Frey Saar I. Gill Elizabeth O. Hexner Selina M. Luger James K. Mangan Mary E. Martin Shannon R. McCurdy Alexander E. Perl David L. Porter Mindy G. Schuster Edward A. Stadtmauer Alison W. Loren: Risk of invasive fungal infections in patients with high‐risk MDS and AML receiving hypomethylating agents American Journal of Hematology : 2020.

Shannon R. McCurdy, Christopher G. Kanakry, Hua-Ling Tsai, Ante Vulić, Jamila Adom, Sophie Paczesny, Ephraim J. Fuchs, Ravi Varadhan, Heather J. Symons, Leo Luznik: A Machine Learning Approach Deciphers the Effects of Immune Parameters on Clinical Outcomes after HLA-Haploidentical and HLA-Matched Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation with Posttransplant Cyclophosphamide Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Annual Meeting : 2020.

Benjamin M Manning, MD PhD, Robyn T Sussman, PhD, Safoora Deihimi, Noelle V. Frey, MD, Elizabeth O. Hexner, MD MS, Alison W. Loren, MD MS, Selina Luger, MD, James K. Mangan, MD PhD, Mary Ellen Martin, MD, Shannon R. McCurdy, MD, Jennifer J.D. Morrissette, PhD, Alexander E. Perl, MD, Edward A. Stadtmauer, MD FACP, David L. Porter, MD, Saar I. Gill, MD PhD: Outcomes of Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation for AML and MDS Based on Pre-Transplant MRD Status By Next-Generation Sequencing American Society of Hematology : 2019.

Yu Kang, Bruna Leal Assuncao, Srinivas Denduluri, Shannon McCurdy, Selina Luger, Bénédicte Lefebvre, Joseph Carver and Marielle Scherrer-Crosbie: Symptomatic Heart Failure in Acute Leukemia Patients Treated With Anthracyclines JACC: CardioOncology 1 (2): 2019.

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Academic Contact Information

Department of Hematology Oncology
3400 Civic Center Blvd
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19104
Patient appointments: 800-789-7366