Cure2Children activities over the last 5 years

Over the past five years, the Cure2Children Foundation has significantly developed and expanded its activities, strengthening both the direct care of children affected by serious diseases and the capacities of local healthcare systems in resource-limited countries.
Thanks to its well-established collaboration with international organizations such as DKMS (Germany) and Sankalp India Foundation (India), the number of children with life-threatening diseases treated each year has increased more than fivefold, rising from fewer than 50 to over 300.
Today, this work represents the largest international experience in the field of hemoglobinopathies—particularly thalassemia and sickle cell disease—among the most
widespread and deadly non-communicable pediatric diseases worldwide. This enables Cure2Children to respond to a growing share of the requests for help received daily,
especially from Asia and Africa. The clinical experience gained has also allowed the Foundation to participate in the highest-level international accreditation processes for transplant centers (FACT-JACIE) and to substantially increase its scientific output.
In December 2025, the second edition of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) course—EMPACT2 program—dedicated to advanced pediatric care training in middle-income countries, with a particular focus on nursing specialization, was completed.
At the same time, Cure2Children has supported the launch and training of new healthcare centers in India, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Uganda, and Cameroon, promoting sustainable and autonomous models of care.
Equally important is the free HLA typing activity, carried out in collaboration with DKMS, aimed at facilitating access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for children who do not have a compatible family donor.
Scientific Publications
1. Nguyen HTK, Faulkner L, Bui SBB, Lederman HM, Ho NTT, Dang TT. Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage in a child with mild hemophilia A who underwent bone marrow transplantation for thalassemia: a case report. Front Hematol 2025; 4. doi:10.3389/frhem.2025.1657903.
2. Sevanthini BR, Hegde S, Sridhar T, Trivedi D, Reddy M, Shah V, Panchamia VM, Geetha T, Vora D, Pushpa H, Agarwal RK, Faulkner L. Short-term risks and benefits of hydroxyurea (hydroxycarbamide)- induced transfusion independence in patients with beta-thalassaemia syndromes. Br J Haematol. 2025 Aug 29. doi: 10.1111/bjh.70109. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40884002. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.70109
3. Agarwal RK, Periyavan S, Trivedi D, Shah V, Reddy M, Mani G, Sedai A, Kumari A, Faulkner L. Measuring success of targeted screening and prevention for hemoglobinopathies. Front Public Health 2025; 13. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1587738.
4. Agarwal RK, Dhanya R, Parmar L, Sedai A, Mani G, Dhar A, Hegde S, Periyavan S, Erappa N, S A, Kumar S, Rengaraj B, G N M, N M, Prasad RN, Fernandes R, Makkam A, Faulkner L. Prenatal hemoglobinopathy screening & prevention in India: A cross-sectional study. Indian J Med Res. 2025 May;161(5):441-448. doi: 10.25259/IJMR_1003_2024. PMID: 40844095. https://doi.org/10.25259/ijmr_1003_20245. Agarwal RK, Dhanya R, Trivedi D, Shah V, Reddy M, Marwah P, Sedai A, Ankita K, Parmar L, Faulkner L. Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor-Primed Bone Marrow Transplantation Experience in 350 Matched Sibling Donor Grafts for Severe Thalassemia. Transplant Cell Ther. 2025 May;31(5):319.e1- 319.e8. Epub 2025 Jan 30. PMID: 39890022., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtct.2025.01.890.
6. Periyavan S, Kumar S, Mamatha, GN, Hegde S, Jain S, Dhanya R, Agarwal,RK, Faulkner L. HPLC First Approach in Detecting Thalassemia and Other Common Hemoglobinopathies Is More Cost and Time Effective. Front. Hematol. 2025, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/frhem.2025.1461498.
7. Kandy ZAK, Nivargi S, Chaudhary B, Ramzan M, Abdullah F, Aboobacker F, Khalil C, Porta F, Faulkner L, Alshamshi H. Outcomes of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) From Matched Related Donors in Pediatric Patients: Insights From a Single Center in the United Arab Emirates. Cureus 2025;
17. doi:10.7759/cureus.89239.
8. Srivastava A, Duarte FB, Faulkner L. Feasibility and Experiences of HCT in Resource-Constrained Settings. In: Sureda A, Corbacioglu S, Greco R, Kröger N, Carreras E, editors. The EBMT Handbook: Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies [Internet]. Cham: Springer International
Publishing; 2024 [cited 2024 Apr 13]. p. 607–14. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031- 44080-9_69,
9. Agarwal RK, Dhanya R, Sedai A, Ankita K, Parmar L, Ramprakash DS, Sandeep, Trivedi D, Shah V, Bhat N, and Faulkner L: Bone Marrow Quality Index: A predictor of acute GVHD in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for thalassemia. Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, 2023; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtct.2023.07.014.
10. Agarwal N, Jothi K, Gambhir S, Rall G, Landwehr R, Faulkner L, Jagannathan L, Paul P, and Schmidt A: The DKMS-BMST Thalassemia program: Description, scope and impact. Pediatric Hematology Oncology Journal 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phoj.2023.07.001
11. Verna M, Canesi M, Conter V, Faulkner L Rovelli MA, Silvestri D, Majolino I, Biondi A, Chra Nawfal A, Faeq Mohammed V. Hematopoietic stem cell transplant start-up in Iraqi Kurdistan: results on thalassemia patients and analysis of the methodology. Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtct.2023.01.018.
12. Matthay K., Hylton J., Penumarthy N.,Khattab M., Soh S.Y., Nguyen H.T.K., Alcasabas A.P., Fawzy M., Saab R., Khan M.S., Ghandour K., Chantada G., Parikh N.S., Faulkner L., Lam C.G., and Howard S.C. ‘Global Neuroblastoma Network: An International Multidisciplinary Neuroblastoma Tumor Board for
Resource-Limited Countries’. Pediatric Blood & Cancer, January 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/pbc.29568.
13. Marwah P., Ramprakash S., Prasad S..TR., Mane Gizhlaryan M., Trivedi D., Shah V., Chitaliya A., Elizabeth S., Agarwal R.K., Dhanya R. and Faulkner L. ‘Is It Safe and Efficacious to Remove Central Lines in Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Patients with Platelets Less than 20,000/ml?’ EJHaem, January 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.379.
14. Dhanya R., Agarwal R.K., Ramprakash S., Trivedi D., Shah V., Bhat N., Reddy M., Elizabeth S., Batool A., Khalid S. and Faulkner L. ‘Do Weekly Surveillance Cultures Contribute to Antibiotic Stewardship and Correlate with Outcome of HSCT in Children? A Multicenter Real-World Experience of 5 Years from the
Indian Subcontinent’. Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, December 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtct.2021.12.008.
15. Diaz-de-Heredia C., Bresters D., Faulkner L., Yesilipek A., Strahm B., Miano M., Dalle,J.-H., Peffault de Latour R., Corbacioglu S., 2021. Recommendations on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with Diamond–Blackfan anemia. On behalf of the Pediatric Diseases and Severe Aplastic Anemia Working Parties of the EBMT. Bone Marrow Transplantation 31 August 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-021-01449-w
16. Mehta P., Ramprakash S., Raghuram C.P., Trivedi D., Dhanya R-, Agarwal R.K., and Faulkner L. Pre- Transplant Donor-Type Red Cell Transfusion Is a Safe and Effective Strategy to Reduce Isohemagglutinin Titers and Prevent Donor Marrow Infusion Reactions in Major ABO-Mismatched Transplants’. Annals of Hematology, 19 June 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-021-04571-3.
17. El Fakih R. , Greinix H., Koh M., …Faulkner L., … Aljurf M. Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (WBMT) Recommendations Regarding Essential Medications Required to Establish an Early Stage Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Program. Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, 21 dicembre 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtct.2020.12.015.

18. de la Fuente J., Gluckman E., Makani J., Telfer P., Faulkner L., Corbacioglu S., Amrolia P., Ansari M., Balduzzi A., Dalassier A., Dalle J., Hereda Diaz C., Feuchtinger T., Locatelli F., Lucchini G., Galimard J., Gonzalez Vincent M., Handgretinger R., Kleinschmidt K., Lawitschka A., Perez Martinez A., Peters C.,
Rocha V., Ruggeri A., Sedlacek P., Svec P., Toporski J., Yesilipek A. The role of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for sickle cell disease in the era of targeted disease-modifying therapies and gene editing- The Lancet Haematology, 7 (12):e902-e911, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352- 3026(20)30283-0
19. Ramprakash S., Agarwal R., Dhanya R., Marwah P., Soni R., Yaqub N., Fatima I., Gooneratne L., Williams S., Khalid S., Sen S. and Faulkner L.: Splenomegaly may increase the risk of rejection in low risk matched related donor transplant for thalassemia and this risk can be partially overcome by
additional immunosuppression during conditioning. Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation,26(10):1886-1893, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbmt.2020.06.013
20. Faulkner L., Verna M., Rovelli A., Kumar Agarwal R., Dhanya R., Ramprakash S., Raghuram CP, Mehta P., Sandeep Elizabeth S., Khalid S., Batool A., Khan-Ghilani S.. Fatima I., Zara T., Marwah P., Soni R., Trivedi D., Conter V., Canesi M., Othman D., Faeq V., Kleinschmidt K., Yesillipek A., Catherine G. Lam C.G., Scott C. Howard S.C. and Corbacioglu S. Setting up and sustaining blood and marrow transplant services for children in Middle-Income Economies: An experience-driven position paper on behalf of the PDWP of the EBMT Bone Marrow Transplantation, (2021) 56:536–543. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409- 020-0983-5.