BY ELLE BENT
Dell Children’s Medical Center gears up for stem cell program
Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas is almost ready to offer a stem cell transplant program to patients, a feat that’s been years in the making. Dr. Amir Mian joined Dell Children’s last summer as division chief of pediatric hematology and oncology to help build the program. The details The program will treat children and adolescents with different cancers and blood disorders. Mian’s team is looking to start offering autologous bone marrow transplants by the end of this year. This refers to harvesting a patient’s healthy stem cells—located in the bone marrow—and returning them to the same patient who may have lost these
Additionally, Mian and his team are in the process of seeking accreditation through the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy, or FACT. This takes between 12-18 months, and provides specific guidelines and quality measures to hospitals. As part of the accreditation process, Mian’s team has begun working on standardized operating procedures, or SOPs, which include steps as simple as how to identify patients, how to store cells and how to transport patients. Ideally, the team will begin collecting cells for transplants by the end 2024, Mian said. Once accredited, the program can provide stem cell therapies and allogeneic transplants. What’s next The team at Dell Children’s will continue working through regulatory processes to earn accreditation and begin treating patients by the end of this year or potentially early next year.
How does a stem cell transplant work? An autologous transplant is a long process that places a patient into an immunocompromised state. Step 1: A patient is determined as eligible for a transplant
Step 2: Patient is admitted, placed in private room with air filters to reduce risk of infection Step 3: A patient’s stem cells are collected through the chest or the arm then stored in a blood bank Step 4: Patient is treated with a high dose of chemotherapy or radiation therapy to prepare for the transplant
to chemotherapy. The action taken
Step 5: Patients receive stem cells back into their bloodstream
After Mian joined the hospital in 2023, recruiting for the team that will work in the program began.
Step 6: Patient is monitored throughout recovery process
SOURCE: AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, DELL CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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