Northside Program Is No. 1

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), the federally funded organization that facilitates most unrelated bone marrow transplants in the United States, has released data that indicate ’s Blood & Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program has, by far, the best survival rates for matched related and unrelated transplants of any program in the country. This is the third consecutive year that Northside has come out on top. The most recently reported data spans from years 2007 through 2009.

Transplanting healthy marrow may be the best and only hope of a cure for life-threatening diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma and other blood disorders.  The BMT Program at Northside is one of the largest and most comprehensive programs in the nation, serving patients who require bone marrow or stem cell transplants. Patients don’t need to travel far to have access to the full range of available hematopoietic transplants, including those from matched related, matched unrelated and haploidentical donors, and cord blood transplants. All services are conveniently located at Northside’s Atlanta campus.

In 2011, 174 transplants were performed at Northside, placing the hospital among the top BMT programs in the nation in terms of volume. The one-year survival of patients transplanted at Northside was 78 percent, the best of any BMT program in the country. Furthermore, the actual survival was twenty percent above the survival expected by the NMDP for Northside. This is the greatest positive variance between expected and actual survival for any BMT program in the nation

"Since the establishment of our comprehensive blood and marrow transplant program in 1997, we have strived to become the premier program in the Southeast and among the best programs within the United States in terms of outstanding quality clinical care," said H. Kent Holland, M.D., medical director, BMT Program at Northside Hospital. "The results of our efforts are clearly shown in these latest results from the National Marrow Donor Program."

In 2011, Northside’s BMT Program was asked by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to join the prestigious group of Core Clinical Centers for the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network. Northside is one of only 20, out of more than 150, such BMT programs in the United States to be awarded this status. Northside also is the only metro Atlanta hospital chosen by NCI to be a Community Cancer Center, which gives patients access to the latest cancer research and treatments.

"The BMT Program’s high level of expertise in blood and marrow transplant therapy and strong portfolio of clinical research play an integral role in Northside’s award from the NCCCP," said Bob Quattrocchi, president and CEO, Northside Hospital. "We are extremely proud of the commitment to quality of the more than 200 professionals that work in our BMT program."

An accomplished group of nationally recognized physicians, along with a team of highly trained professionals, spearhead the amazing work that takes place in Northside’s newly renovated inpatient and outpatient BMT units, laboratory and blood donor center. Together, they provide patients with promising hope for a disease-free existence.

For more information about the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Northside Hospital,visit http://www.northside.com and http://www.BMTGA.com.

For more information about the National Marrow Donor Program, visit http://www.BeTheMatch.org.