Hematologic Malignancies, Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) and Cellular Therapy at the ӰԺ
The BMT & Cellular Therapy Program at the ӰԺ is one of the oldest and among the largest programs in Midwest performing over 350 procedures annually. The program is internationally recognized for world class patient care, excellent survival outcomes and cutting-edge research. Each year over 35% of transplant and cellular therapy procedures by the program are done of interventional clinical trials, placing the program among the best in country in terms of trial activity ratio. As one of key core centers for the BMT CTN trials networks, ӰԺ faculty are behind the inception, design and execution of practice changing trials looking at the role of optimal GVHD prevention following allogeneic transplantation, treatment of high risk and refractory GVHD, optimal donor selection, pre transplant frailty assessment, and application of early CAR-T application in high risk myeloma, to name a few. The program is leading the nation in terms of application of gene therapies in non-malignant blood disorders and known expertise in utilizing allogeneic transplantation as a curative therapy in Sickle Cell Disease. The program is also a key site for industry sponsored trials looking at novel Cellular Therapy platforms including TCR-based therapies and Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes for solid tumors, third-party CAR-T and NK cell-based platforms of lymphomas and myeloma, and TCR-like treatments for acute and chronic leukemia. The robust portfolio of investigator lead research at the program involves novel conditioning approaches for alternative donor transplantation, steroid free GVHD treatments, antibody based GVHD prevention strategies, and post-transplant immune modulation to eradicated measurable residual disease.