Bone Marrow Transplant Program

Overview

Mass General Cancer Center's Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program is world-renowned for its expertise in hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) to treat a wide variety of hematological conditions. Since the BMT program’s inception in 1992, we have conducted over 3,000 transplant procedures and currently conduct over 150 transplant procedures annually. In addition to comprehensive and compassionate multi-disciplinary care for our patients, we also conduct leading-edge clinical and translational research to develop innovative strategies for improving the outcomes of patients undergoing BMT.

Innovative Approaches

Our program is advancing clinical care and research in several areas and these include:

Reducing the toxicities of BMT:

• Development of new strategies for reducing both acute and chronic transplant related toxicities
• Analysis of patient-reported outcomes including quality of life of our patients undergoing BMT and developing new interventions to improve the experience of both patients and their caretakers
• BMT Survivorship program to better address the long-term health needs of patients after transplant

Novel treatment approaches against graft-vs-host disease (GVHD):

• Participation in national consortiums and clinical trials studying acute and chronic GVHD
• Development of new therapies to prevent acute and chronic GVHD
• Development of new therapies to treat acute and chronic GVHD

Developing safer and more effective stem cell transplant protocols for patients who do not have a fully matched related or unrelated donor:

• Innovative protocols involving haploidentical donors (partially matched relatives) or partially match unrelated donors

Reducing disease relapse after stem cell transplantation:

• Study the use of maintenance therapies after allogeneic transplantation to reduce disease relapse

Increasing tolerance for solid organ transplants by performing combined kidney and bone marrow transplants for patients who have both advanced kidney disease and an underlying blood disease.

Multidisciplinary Patient Care

At Mass General Cancer Center, we pride ourselves in providing excellent, comprehensive clinical care to patients undergoing transplant. Embedded within Massachusetts’ oldest teaching hospital, our program offers the top-notch multidisciplinary care, resources and expertise needed to achieve successful outcomes. The size of our program has allowed us to foster specialization and expertise in the field of HCT, yet maintain the continuity and personal relationships that have always been a Mass General standard. We look forward to working with you.

Yi-Bin Chen, MD, Director, BMT Program
Email: ychen6@partners.org

Clinical Trials

Providing state of the art clinical care through innovative research is a foundational principle of our BMT program. Clinical trials are research studies which are conducted to answer questions that help advance the care of patients. They can test many things from new drugs, new combinations of drugs, already approved drugs being studied to treat patients in new or different ways or investigating novel approaches to treat specific patients in unique circumstances. The Mass General Bone Marrow Transplant Program has a very active clinical research portfolio with investigational studies covering almost all aspects of transplant care. The ultimate goal of clinical research is to improve the outcomes for all of our patients.

Find listings of our current clinical trials.

We believe collaboration with other transplant centers is key to conducting impactful research. Our program has long-standing collaborations with established centers and consortiums, including:

• The Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN)
• The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR)
• The Mount Sinai Acute GVHD Consortium (MAGIC)

We are proud to have participated in practice-changing clinical trials, which have resulted in FDA approval of treatments for GVHD, including:

• Ruxolitinib for steroid-refractory acute GVHD
• Belumosudil for steroid-refractory chronic GVHD
• Ruxolitinib for steroid-refractory chronic GVHD

Our program has also had a pivotal role in a number of recent innovative clinical trials investigating novel approaches to multiple aspects of BMT care. These trials have included:

If you are eligible for a clinical trial, your physician will offer you the chance for participation. We will comprehensively review the logistics and purpose of the trial and also offer alternatives including the standard of care.

For any questions about Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials, please contact Zachariah DeFilipp, MD, Director of BMT Clinical Research (zdefilipp@mgh.harvard.edu).