Battling Cancer with Stem Cells: Is This Company’s Technology Changing the Game?

Battling Cancer with Stem Cells: Is This Company’s Technology Changing the Game?

Survival rates for stem cell transplants undergone by blood cancer patients have increased significantly over the past decade. This is true whether the stem cells come from related or unrelated donors. According to a joint study published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology last year, several factors are responsible; these include earlier referrals for transplantation, advances in tissue typing and better postoperative care.

The study was led by Theresa Hahn, Ph.D., of Roswell Park Cancer Center Institute, and jointly conducted with the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research and the Be the Match national registry. Working from data related to 70 to 90 percent of all blood stem cell transplants performed in the United States, the study analyzed outcomes over a 12-year period for some 38,000 transplant patients. “The study shows that we are making significant progress in transplantation on a national level,” said Dr. Hahn. “Our results demonstrate that these efforts have yielded an improvement in early survival rates and we will continue to work together to further improve long-term survival.”

 “We must and will continue to make strides in finding new treatments for blood cancers while also enhancing the effectiveness of the ones that already exist.”