Blood & Marrow Transplant Program

Our experts provide blood and marrow transplant and cell therapy services for adults and children. These therapies are used to treat people with various blood disorders and blood cancers.

The team at NYU Langone’s Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, part of Perlmutter Cancer Center, includes highly trained physicians who specialize in blood and marrow transplantation. Our team also includes advanced practice providers, transplant coordinators, social workers, nutritionists, physical therapists, symptoms managements specialists, financial counselors, and other experts from multiple specialties, who work together to provide comprehensive care.

In a blood and marrow transplant, you are given new blood-forming stem cells to replace your existing stem cells. Stem cells reside mainly in bone marrow, which is a sponge-like tissue found inside the large bones in your body. New stem cells that are transplanted can work as a natural repair crew, dividing again and again to create healthy blood cells that replace dysfunctional or diseased bone marrow. These cells may also help the body mount an immune attack against a tumor, a response known as a graft-versus-tumor effect.

In cell therapy, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, immune cells are extracted from the patient’s blood or that of a donor. The immune cells are altered to better recognize and attack cancer cells, and then returned to the patient.

Excellence in Patient Care

In recognition of our high-quality patient care and laboratory practices, we are accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) for autologous and allogeneic transplants and cell therapy for adult patients, and autologous transplants for pediatric patients. We offer peripheral blood and marrow transplants, a procedure that involves collecting blood-forming cells from circulating blood, also known as peripheral blood, instead of taking them from the bone marrow. We also perform umbilical cord blood transplants, in which blood rich in stem cells is taken directly from a donor umbilical cord immediately after a baby’s birth.

We specialize in autologous and allogeneic transplants for adults and children to manage the following conditions:

• multiple myeloma and other plasma cell disorders, including primary amyloidosis
• all types of Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• all variations of leukemias, including acute myeloid leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• myelodysplastic syndromes
• myeloproliferative disorders, including primary myelofibrosis
• aplastic anemia
• hemoglobinopathies, including sickle cell disease
• adult germ cell tumors
• pediatric cancers, including neuroblastoma and brain tumors

We also offer haploidentical transplants for children and adults. Haploidentical transplants are a type of blood and marrow transplant that uses healthy blood cells from a half-matched donor. This means the donor matches half of the patient’s human leukocyte antigen (HLA), a type of protein, or marker, found in cells.

Through the use of haploidentical transplants, we have expanded and diversified our pool of donors to include more people from underrepresented ethnic and minority groups, so that every patient can find a potential donor. We are also a full member of the National Marrow Donor Program, which gives us access to donors from across the country and around the world, increasing your chances of finding a matching donor.

A Dedicated Outpatient Location

We offer outpatient transplants for eligible adults and children at our newly designed location in Manhattan. Our Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Center includes examination rooms, an infusion center, and a specialized laboratory for processing and storing stem cells for use during transplants. Care for children is provided through Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone.

Research and Clinical Trials

Through research and clinical trials, our transplant team has pioneered innovative ways to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), in which immune cells in donated blood and marrow attack the tissues of a recipient.

Based on our research, we are one of the only programs in the country that offers matched-related and matched-unrelated allogeneic transplants without using traditional GvHD preventive medications such as cyclosporine, tacrolimus, and sirolimus. This allows us to provide transplants to people who are often denied a blood and marrow transplant, for example those with limited kidney function.

For people who do not qualify for a transplant, we offer the option to participate in clinical trials and access to other novel treatments.