Role of socioeconomic deprivation on inequities in care outcomes of haematological malignancies treated with stem cell transplant in the UK: a systematic review protocol.

introductionStem cell transplant (SCT) is a potential cure for haematological malignancies whose outcomes are predicted to be poor on chemotherapy alone and cases difficult to treat using standard of care treatment. There is growing evidence to show that not all patients who would benefit from SCT receive it due to inequities in the treatment pathway. The role of socioeconomic deprivation on inequities in the SCT setting is unclear due to conflicting findings. We aim to synthesise the UK evidence base in this area from the point of diagnosis to transplant to guide further research and policy to improve survival for underserved patients. METHOD AND ANALYSIS: Primary electronic searches will be performed in bibliographic databases including MEDLINE, Embase, Proquest Databases, Central & CDSR, Stem Cell Evidence and Web of Science and Google Scholar for grey literature. Eligibility criteria will include observational studies of UK patients diagnosed with haematological malignancies treated with SCT, where outcomes are reported according to socioeconomic deprivation. Two independent reviewers will screen each study and assess the quality of all included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa grading system. Outcomes of interest include delay in diagnosis/referral, treatments/interventions received, referral to transplant, presence of comorbidities affecting transplant eligibility, transplant utilisation rates, waiting time to transplant and survival rates. Post-transplant outcomes are beyond the scope of this review. Inequities in SCT due to socioeconomic deprivation will be narratively summarised. Meta-analysis will be conducted dependent on data availability. This protocol has been registered with PROSPERO (2024: CRD42024620592). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is not required for this study as it is a secondary analysis of published data.We are not aware of any ethical concerns regarding SCT or treatment of donors in the studies included in this research. This systematic review will retrieve, screen and extract data from UK research. SCT and the treatment of donors in the UK follow the National Health Service (NHS) and NHS Blood and Transplant guidelines and policies and are regulated by the Human Tissue Authority and Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. The data which will be used in this review will consist of data from NHS digital/NHS England or single NHS centre data, which will follow the guidelines and regulations above.The findings will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication, shared at conference presentations, and disseminated to both clinical and patient groups including National (Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Minority Ethnic) BAME Transplant Alliance and the National Institute for Health Research Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Precision Transplant and Cellular Therapeutics. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42024620592.