Latest Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation Stories

Study has implications for treatment of other immune-mediated disorders In a study that seems to pivot on a paradox, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have used an immune system stimulant as an immune system suppressor to treat a common, often debilitating side effect of donor stem cell transplantation in cancer patients. The effect, in some cases, was profound. The phase I study, published in the Dec. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, involved allogeneic (donor)...

SARASOTA, Fla., Dec. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Larry Conrad went in for his annual physical on his 50th birthday. During his exam, his doctor found swollen lymph nodes in his armpits and groin. Conrad had a cough and said he'd lost weight because he 'felt full all the time'. His doctor ordered a series of tests, and Conrad was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the most common type. He rejected the standard chemotherapy protocol, and, like over half a million other Americans,...

CLEVELAND, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- University Hospitals Case Medical Center researchers could still be close to giving heart attack patients a second chance...just not as they originally thought. The "LateTIME" trial was a study of adult stem cells (autologous) harnessed from bone marrow that were believed to have the ability to improve heart function after an attack if injected into the heart within two weeks of the attack. Results were released this week at the 2011...

2-drug combination may alleviate radiation sickness in people A combination of two drugs may alleviate radiation sickness in people who have been exposed to high levels of radiation, even when the therapy is given a day after the exposure occurred, according to a study led by scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston. Mouse studies of other potential therapies suggest they would be effective in humans only if administered within a few minutes or hours...

Controlling a stem cell transplant recipient’s immune response may be major key to successful bone regeneration A new study in Nature Medicine describes how different types of immune system T-cells alternately discourage and encourage stem cells to regrow bone and tissue, bringing into sharp focus the importance of the transplant recipient's immune system in stem cell regeneration. The study, conducted at the Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology at the Ostrow School of Dentistry...

US drug regulators for the first time have approved a therapy using cells of human blood from the placenta and the umbilical cord to treat cancer or blood-forming disorders, reports ABC News. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday officially licensed HEMACORD™ (Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells-Cord, HPC-C) for “use in unrelated donor hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation procedures… in patients with disorders affecting the hematopoietic system that are inherited,...

SILVER SPRING, Md., Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved HEMACORD, the first licensed hematopoietic progenitor cells-cord (HPC-C) cell therapy. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090824/FDALOGO) HEMACORD is indicated for use in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation procedures in patients with disorders affecting the hematopoietic (blood forming) system. For example, cord blood transplants have been used to treat patients...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study shows older blood cancer patients should be able to receive stem cell transplants no matter what age group they are in– 60 to 64, 65 to 69 or 70 to 75. Patients in all three age groups had comparable survival rates, suggesting  age played a limited role in how patients tolerate the mini-transplant, a "kinder, gentler" form of allogeneic (donor cell) stem cell transplantation developed at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "Age is no longer a...

HOUSTON, Nov. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced publication in The New England Journal of Medicine of clinical results using a new therapy that demonstrated rapid and complete reversal of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The paper, Inducible Apoptosis as a Safety Switch for Adoptive Cell Therapy, reports on the use of Bellicum's CaspaCIDe(TM) technology to eliminate donor T cells causing GVHD, a serious and sometimes fatal complication of allogeneic...

Older patients with advanced hematologic malignancies, such as leukemia and lymphoma, who received a conditioning regimen that included minimal-intensity radiation therapy prior to allogeneic (genetically different) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT; receipt of bone marrow or stem cells transplant) had survival and progression-free survival outcomes suggesting that this treatment approach may be a viable option for older patients with these malignancies, according to a study in the...