CTV.ca News Staff Published Monday, November 30, 2009 10:06AM EST Last Updated Saturday, May 19, 2012 12:22AM EDT

Montreal researchers are taking part in what could become a breakthrough in stem cell transplants, by leading the first transplant of a mismatched donor.

A 28-year-old father-to-be who has Ewing sarcoma is about to become the first person in North America to get a transplant from a mismatched donor.

The patient, Andrew Willette, needs the transplant to fight his cancer, but no one in his family is an appropriate match. So he will be using cells from his sister, who is only a partial match.

Usually, such transplants fail. That's because patients usually reject and attack the foreign donor cells. The ensuing response can kill the patient, or lead to infections or relapses.

But, the technique pioneered in a Montreal lab by Dr. Denis-Claude Roy of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital could change that.

Roy explains that his research team developed a new approach that preserves the cells that fight infection and disease while eliminating the cells that reject donor cells.

"We are letting Mother Nature decide which cells are going to react," he told CTV's Canada AM Monday morning.

Roy explains that the technique involves introducing donor cells to the patient cells in a lab.

"Those cells that recognize foreign patient cells become activated. The cells that are there to fight infections or viruses or even leukemia aren't activated, they don't see their target, so they're actually sleeping. So we then kill those cells that are activated," he explained.

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New technique could revolutionize stem-cell transplants