New transplant method aims to reduce dangerous side effects in blood cancer patients

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS): Refractory anemia/refractory anemia with ring sideroblasts/refractory cytopenia with multilineage anemia (RA/RARS/RCMA) with high-risk cytogenetic features or transfusion dependence, as well as Refractory Anemia with Excess Blasts Type 1 and 2 (RAEB-1 and RAEB-2) * Karnofsky (adult) Performance Status of at least 70% * Adequate organ function measured by: * Cardiac: asymptomatic or if symptomatic then left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) at rest must be 50% and must improve with exercise. * Hepatic: \< 3x upper limit of normal (ULN) aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and: 1.5 total serum bilirubin, unless there is congenital benign hyperbilirubinemia or if the hyperbilirubinemia is directly caused by the disease in which the patient is receiving a transplant \[e.g., acute myeloid leukemia (AML) Chloroma obstructing the biliary tree\]. Patients with higher bilirubin levels due to causes other than active liver disease is also eligible with Pl approval e.g., patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), Gilbert's disease or other hemolytic disorders. * Renal: serum creatinine: \<1.2 mg/dL (normal range 0.7-1.3) or if serum creatinine is outside the normal range, then creatinine clearance (CrCl) \> 5940 mL/min (measured or calculated/estimated). * Pulmonary: asymptomatic or if symptomatic, diffusion capacity of lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) 50% of predicted (corrected for hemoglobin). * Willing to participate and must sign an informed consent form Exclusion Criteria: * Pregnant or breast-feeding * Active viral, bacterial or fungal infection * Patient seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-I /II; human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-I /II * Presence of leukemia in the central nervous system (CNS)