For the fourth consecutive year, the Cedars-Sinai Division of Hematology and Cell Therapy's Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant Program has achieved higher-than-expected survival rates in patients receiving allogeneic stem cell transplants, according to a recent report from the Center for International Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant Research. Allogeneic transplants use blood stem cells from donor bone marrow to treat patients with blood and bone marrow diseases. The Cedars-Sinai team performs more than 40 such transplants each year. Cedars-Sinai, a center included in the report, is one of only 12 that exceed national expectations for survival in relation to allogeneic transplants.
Its one-year survival rate is 85.8%. Expected survival rates for similar patients receiving transplants at other U.S. centers In the United States, they range from 68.8% to 83.1%. The Cedars-Sinai newsroom recently spoke with Dr.
Ronald Paquette, clinical director of the Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Transplant Program and director of myeloid tumors at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, to discuss bone marrow transplantation. Bone marrow is the soft tissue found inside bones and contains stem cells that produce the body's main blood cells. Bone marrow transplant is used to treat bone marrow diseases and blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. It involves replacing unhealthy blood cells with healthy ones. Before the transplant, patients undergo chemotherapy with or without radiation to destroy abnormal cells and suppress the patient's immune system to prevent rejection of donor cells. Most of the time we use allogeneic transplantation to treat acute leukemia because it offers patients the best chance of a cure.
It involves transferring healthy stem cells from a donor to a patient, rather than using stem cells from the patient's own body, which is called autologous transplantation. Usually, the donor is a person related to the patient, but they don't have to be a relative. Our preferred donors are the patient's young relatives, usually children. Modern transplant methods allow us to use related donors who share only half of the patient's tissue proteins. About 85% of our transplants are performed with donors who are half the match.
In the past, only transplants could be considered fully compatible. The patient's biological child will always be a donor with half the compatibility, which can help the patient to perform the transplant more quickly and with excellent success rates. In addition, younger stem cells from children may provide greater benefits than older cells from another family member, such as a sibling. Once we've identified a donor with half the match, we can usually have someone do the transplant in about six weeks, instead of three months for an unrelated donor.
The unique and valuable experience at all levels of our transplant team is extraordinary. Our doctors, transplant coordinators, specialized nurses, skilled nurses, oncology pharmacists, psychosocial specialists, quality control nurses and administrative staff work together to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. We have found a formula that works and we continue to keep up to date on the most innovative treatments for our patients. A study led by Cedars-Sinai researchers provides new evidence that thyroid cancer continues to be overdiagnosed and that comprehensive screening and treatment of thyroid cancer has not resulted in higher survival rates.
At Moffitt, we understand that bone marrow transplant success rates are a key consideration for patients to make treatment decisions. Thanks, in part, to our extensive experience and our high level of expertise, we always achieve exceptional results for patients, with overall survival rates up to four times higher than the average national. Scientists are now using genetic engineering to improve stem cell capabilities, primarily through the overexpression of CXCR4, which increases the transfer of cells to ischemic regions. AutoHCT uses the patient's own stem cells to help restore the body's ability to produce normal blood cells after high doses of chemotherapy and is a common treatment modality for patients with multiple myeloma and lymphoma.
In other cases, providers obtain them from a donor and give them to someone who has cancerous, abnormal, or damaged stem cells (allogeneic stem cell transplant). Stem cell treatments show different degrees of efficacy depending on the condition and the type of cells used. The biggest risk is that you will undergo the procedure and that the transplanted stem cells will not be able to delay or eliminate the disease. The combination of behavioral interventions with stem cell therapy has shown promise for maintaining long-term well-being, especially after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.
For mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) treatments, mild to moderate reactions are reported in approximately 12% of cases. Thanks to rigorous research, regulatory oversight and ongoing monitoring, stem cell therapies continue to offer hope and, at the same time, maintain high safety standards. Current processing methods use engineered stem cells that demonstrate improved cellular functions. An important advance in hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy involves modifying patients' stem cells through lentivirus-mediated transduction.
Regulatory authorities continue to refine safety standards for stem cell therapies, balancing scientific advances with patient protection. Studies reveal that 55% of previously employed patients return to work full or part time, after undergoing autologous transplantation of stem cells. A stem cell transplant can treat and sometimes cure certain blood disorders, cancers, and autoimmune diseases. Healthy stem cells are removed from the patient by bone marrow extraction or apheresis, and then frozen and are stored.
