June 9, 2005
Dana-Farber marks 1,000th unrelated blood stem cell transplant
Partnership with Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston first to achieve medical milestone in New England
Stephen Collins (center) shares a moment with transplant physicians Joseph Antin (left) and Vincent Ho.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in partnership with Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston, recently marked its 1,000th unrelated blood stem cell transplantation procedure, making it the first in New England – and one of only a few nationally – to achieve this milestone.
Dana-Farber has one of the oldest and largest stem cell transplantation programs in the United States. Dana-Farber's adult transplantation service is operated jointly with Brigham and Women's Hospital (Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center), and its pediatric transplantation service is operated jointly with Children's Hospital Boston (Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Care).
Concord, Mass., resident Stephen Collins, who has myelodysplastic syndrome (a blood disorder) that evolved to acute leukemia, received the transplant on May 9 at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
"Mr. Collins was an ideal candidate for this procedure, thanks in part to his good physical condition and the availability of a fully matched unrelated donor," said Vincent Ho, MD, who is Collins' transplant physician at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center.
Collins, 61, received his cells from an anonymous donor through a procedure known as a non-ablative or a "mini" transplant. In a non-ablative transplant, lower doses of drugs (chemotherapy) are used than in traditional transplant, thus potentially sparing the patient from the toxicity and complications of high-dose therapy.
Stem cell transplantation has been used for more than 30 years to treat a variety of cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, and noncancerous conditions, such as aplastic anemia. It is also used to treat some types of solid tumors when other treatments have failed. Stem cells help replenish the body's supply of blood and immune system cells.
Allogeneic transplants involve infusing stem cells from a carefully matched donor, either a family member or someone who is an unrelated donor, into the patient after they have undergone radiation or chemotherapy – or a combination of both – to treat their disease. If a family member is not a suitable match, as in Collins' case, a search is conducted through a worldwide database to find an unrelated donor. Approximately seventy percent of patients in North America who need a transplant will require an unrelated donor.
"The rapid increase in unrelated transplants really speaks to how far we've come in perfecting the process," said Joseph Antin, MD, chief of Stem Cell Transplantation. "Because of the advances we've made in understanding the biology of stem cell transplantation, the alterations in the immune system needed to perform a successful transplantation, and improvements in supportive care, we have seen progressively better results and have been applying transplantation to a wider range of patients."
Dana-Farber's transplant center is a member of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which maintains a registry of potential bone marrow and blood stem cell donors. In addition to the NMDP database, Dana-Farber can access additional registries with a combined total of more than 9 million donors worldwide to identify a potential match for its patients. Collins' match came from a volunteer donor from another country.
As for Collins, who is an accounting professor at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, he is happy to share his story "to help other people realize how easy it is to change someone's life. I'd love to see more people consider registering to be a stem cell donor; it's a no-brainer; it's easy."
As part of the NMDP, Dana-Farber encourages people to register to be a potential marrow donor. The process begins with a simple blood test, but becoming a volunteer donor is a serious commitment. Those who join the registry are asked to remain committed to donating for any patient, anywhere in the world, regardless of the patient's sex, age, race or ethnicity, and until their 61st birthday. This commitment can mean the difference between life and death for the patient.
"There are so many good causes to give back to, it's sometimes hard for a person to decide which ones to support," said Collins. "With stem cell donation, you're giving a renewable resource. You will regenerate your own stem cells, and it can save someone's life."
To find out more about the National Marrow Donor Program at Dana-Farber or to learn how to join the registry, call (866) 875-3324, e-mail nmdpdonor@dfci.harvard.edu, or visit online at www.dana-farber.org/how/donatebone.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute.
Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 735-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare System, an integrated health care delivery network. Internationally recognized as a leading academic health care institution, BWH is committed to excellence in patient care, medical research and the training and education of health care professionals. The hospital's preeminence in all aspects of clinical care is coupled with its strength in medical research. A leading recipient of research grants from the National Institutes of Health, BWH conducts internationally acclaimed clinical, basic and epidemiological studies. For more information about BWH, please visit: www.brighamandwomens.org.
The Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Care Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation Program, one of the nation's oldest, combines the expertise of physicians and nurses at Children's Hospital Boston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to provide comprehensive care for children and adolescents undergoing transplant. Patients requiring round-the-clock care are treated at Children's newly-renovated 13-bed dedicated transplant unit. Outpatient visits and appointments are scheduled at Dana-Farber's Jimmy Fund Clinic, which also houses a late effects clinic for stem cell transplant survivors. The program is internationally known for its pediatric stem cell transplant research contributions as well as for reporting superb outcomes for the most complex cases. More about the program is accessible via the Web at www.danafarberchildrens.org or by calling (888) PEDI-ONC.