Monoclonal antibody therapy and other biological modalities - Tissue - deceased donors

Essential information

Obligatory

See: is there an entry for the condition?

Discuss with a Designated Clinical Support Officer if:

The donor is being treated with monoclonal antibodies, to consider whether the treatment has an impact on the quality and safety of the donated tissue and/or has an immunosuppressive effect.

Supporting information

See if relevant

• Autoimmune disease
• Immunosuppression and immunodeficiency

Additional information

The use of monoclonal antibodies and other biological therapies continues to expand. Care should be taken to understand the type of treatment and the indication, which may not be included in the See if relevant section above.

‘Biological modalities’ and ‘biologics’ are terms used for a broad class of therapeutics that are derived from or rely on living organisms, cellular components or genetic material.

In addition to monoclonal antibodies, biological modalities include:

• nucleic acids (e.g. gene therapies)
• cellular therapies (e.g. CAR-T cells)
• proteins and peptides used to regulate metabolic and bodily functions
• targeted degraders used to induce the elimination of disease-causing proteins

Further types of biological modality are in development (e.g. antibody-drug conjugates to deliver therapies to specific cells).

Consideration needs to be given as to whether the treatment the donor is on may be impacting the quality of the donated tissue (as long as the underlying condition is not itself a reason for deferral) and to assess whether the treatment may be leading to immunosuppression in the donor, in which case refer to the Immunosuppression and immunodeficiency entry.

Reason for change:

This is a new entry.

Version:

Immunosuppression and monoclonal antibody treatments

Version details:

TD-DSG Edition 203 Release 67 (6 October 2026)