What Sets Us Apart: A Key Decision

Treatment with bone marrow transplant is now offered by many cancer centers. However, all transplant programs are not the same. Patients who have been told they would benefit from a bone marrow transplant naturally would like to receive their care from the very best program available.

There are many factors to consider when selecting a bone marrow transplant program. The range of diseases treated, types of transplant offered, and experience and expertise of caregivers are all important considerations. So are the quality of treatment facilities, patient support services, and follow-up care. Access to the very latest therapies, through clinical trials of promising new treatments, can help extend the survival rates of people with advanced or complex disease. A facility’s clinical outcomes statistics, and the quality of life their patients experience after treatment, can provide additional insights.

Quality Indicators

1. Depth of experience
   Duke has earned national and global recognition for its leadership in the use of bone marrow/stem cell transplantation to treat many types of pediatric and adult cancer. Duke is consistently ranked among the nation’s premier health care institutions.
   
2. Volume of procedures
   Duke is one of the nation’s leading centers of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation. Since the program began in 1984, we have performed 2,597 transplants.
   
3. Clinical expertise and qualifications
   The physicians working within Duke’s Adult Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplantation Program are all board-certified, and include intensivists in bone marrow transplantation, hematology-oncology, medical oncology, and related specialties.
   
4. A truly multidisciplinary approach
   In addition to our highly trained physicians, our multidisciplinary team also includes nurse practitioners, social workers, pharmacists, nutritionists, physical therapists, and even financial advisors, all working together to create individualized treatment regimens designed to meet each patient’s unique needs.
   
5. Access to emerging and experimental therapeutic strategies
   Duke’s leadership in bone marrow and stem cell transplantation research means that we provide the very latest approaches—often a factor of special significance for patients with refractory or recurrent malignancies. With clinicians and scientists working in close proximity within our center, our program enjoys an unusual degree of creative collaboration and a true “bench-to-bedside” approach to patient care. We can also offer stem cell transplantation as an option to a broader number of patients—including those who are older, sicker, or lacking a closely matched donor—through the use of less intense chemotherapy regimes, pharmacological manipulation and selection of donor cells, and the use of partially matched cord blood or haplo-identical stem cells.
   
6. Comprehensive support services
   Duke’s bone marrow transplantation services include a constellation of support services designed to assist the patient and his/her family members or caregivers through every step of care, including support groups, assistance with lodging, on-site food services and nutritional counseling, financial counseling, in-home care, and help with many other emotional and logistical concerns.