Indiana Blood & Marrow Transplantation Celebrates 25th Anniversary
It is a special year for the Indiana Blood & Marrow Transplantation (IBMT) program at Franciscan Health Cancer Center Indianapolis, celebrating its 25th anniversary. The program is currently one of just three in Indiana.
“Congratulations to everyone who is part of the Indiana Blood and Marrow Transplantation program on their 25th anniversary,” said Lori Price, president and CEO for Franciscan Health Central Indiana. “The program has evolved and grown so much over the last 25 years and we are excited to see what the next 25 years hold as many new innovations are on the horizon.”
IBMT originally was started by Dr. Jan Jansen and Dr. Luke Akard at another local hospital in the late 1980s. The pair of physicians met while in medical school at Indiana University and formed the group. They transitioned the program to Franciscan in 2000.
“The IBMT program was started to provide state-of-the-art care in a convenient setting, both for inpatient and outpatient services,” said Dr. Akard, hematologist and bone marrow transplant physician. “We were one of the first programs in the country to offer outpatient stem cell transplants as well as CAR T-cell therapies. We have had experience administering investigational therapies that have now become standard and have long been committed to advancing the science of cellular therapies that have made a significant impact on patient outcomes.”
IBMT provides care to patients with blood cancers by using chemotherapy followed by transplantation, of either the patient’s own stem cells or stem cells from a related or unrelated donor. Patients are usually referred to the program by a hematologist or oncologist.
“Treatments available at IBMT for some diseases offer cure or prolongation of life,” said Dr. Felix Mensah, hematologist and medical oncologist. “These treatments are given in a convenient and professional environment, with a focus on meeting patient and family needs. We have been able to offer our services to previously debilitated patients through the aggressive use of physical therapy treatments before and after transplant through our Transplant Optimization Program.”
CAR T-cell therapy is one of the newer treatments that has been offered at IBMT and is a type of immunotherapy that uses a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer. It involves modifying a patient’s T-cells (white blood cells that fight infection) to recognize and kill cancer cells.
“The IBMT program offers an option for patients with complex hematologic malignancies including acute and chronic leukemias, multiple myeloma, and lymphoma to have diagnosis and treatment in Indianapolis rather than travelling outside of the state,” said Dr. Anand Tandra, hematologist and medical oncologist. “The focus is on allogeneic stem cell transplants for leukemias, autologous stem cell transplants and CAR T-cell treatments for multiple myeloma and the lymphomas. The IBMT program offers both standard and promising investigational treatments and the IBMT group is one of the most experienced in the Midwest with outstanding survival results.”
The future looks very bright for the IBMT program, with numerous Immune effector cells and CAR T-cell treatments not only that are currently available, but also those being studied and planned for future trials.
“During the next 25 years, it is anticipated that better understanding of the immune system’s ability to control malignancies will change the treatment landscape of all cancers,” said Dr. Akard. “It may be necessary to manipulate bone marrow stem cells from either donors or the patient with the malignancy to add or subtract target genes using methods currently investigational (CRISPER technology) or unknown.
“The role of donor allogeneic transplant may decrease, but so far, there has not been a treatment or series of treatments that has been able to replace the impact of the combination of the chemotherapy followed by the donor cell transplant offered by allogeneic cellular therapy.”
April is National Donate Life Month, which includes bone marrow donors.
Those wishing to donate blood marrow, can visit the National Marrow Donor Program online (Formerly Be the Match) for more information.
Learn more about the Indiana Blood & Marrow Transplantation program at Franciscan Health Cancer Center Indianapolis.