What is a bone marrow transplant?

Bone marrow transplantation, also known as blood and marrow transplantation, has evolved over the past 20 years into a successful therapy for a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases that, in the past, would not have been curable. It has been proven to help with many cancer-related illnesses and some autoimmune diseases, such as leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and aplastic anemia.

Bone marrow transplantation involves the replacement of stem cells from bone marrow following a high dose of chemotherapy and radiation. You and your transplant physician will decide which type of transplant is the best treatment option for you. The two main types are allogeneic, a donor supplies the marrow or stem cells, and autologous, the patient's own bone marrow or stem cells are used.

CAR T-cell Treatment Process

CAR T-cell (chimeric antigen receptor T cell) therapy is a personalized treatment for hematologic cancer in which a patient’s own immune cells are removed from the patient’s body, genetically reprogrammed, and infused back into the patient���s body to fight certain types of blood cancer cells. The Intermountain Blood and Marrow Transplant Program offers CAR T-cell therapy for patients with some types of leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After a patient is approved for CAR T-cell Therapy, there is a multi-step treatment process:

1. Collection

Patient's T-cells are isolated and collected

2. Reprogramming

T-cells are sent to the laboratory where they are genetically modified with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs)

3. Multiplication

The cells are multiplied until there are millions of these new cells

4. Infusion

Modified cells are infused through an IV back into the patient’s blood

5. Cancer Cell Death

Car T-cells track down and kill patient’s tumor cells

Eligibility

CAR T-cell Therapy is FDA approved as standard of care for some forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and a type of leukemia. These include acute lymphoblastic leukemia (only available for patients up to
age 26), and certain types of large B-cell lymphoma.

Other Criteria:

  • No history of or active CNS lymphoma or other CNS disease
  • Adequate organ function
  • Adequate cardiac function
  • Adequate pulmonary function
  • Absence of malignancy in the past 3 years other than non-melanoma skin cancer
  • No history of allogenic stem cell transplant
  • No history of autoimmune disease requiring systemic immunosuppression in the past 2 years
  • No history of HIV or active hepatitis B or C patients

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