Bone Marrow Transplantation Center
Overview
In 1993, the department of hematology started to perform related allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. And then, in 1997 and 1998, peripheral blood stem cell transplants and unrelated donor bone marrow transplants were carried out. The center of bone marrow transplantation was founded in August 2000, based on the previous efforts on transplants.
The center is one of the largest and well-known bone marrow transplantation (BMT) centers in China. We have been contributing to the patients' care, research and education programs. There are approximately 100 beds in the center, including 24 beds of laminar flow ward and 11 of which are for bone marrow transplants. Being one of the well-known centers, we have a strong group focusing on clinical and basic research of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and hematology.
Our Team
We currently have over 70 staffs of doctors and nurses, including four professors and ten associate professors, three of them are doctoral mentors and three are master mentors. The present director is Prof. He Huang.
Treatments and Services
Being one of the most advanced centers in China for hematopoietic stem cell transplants(HSCTs), we have performed more than 700 HSCTs and patients were from nationwide or even abroad. The center was recognized by Taiwan Tzu Chi Donor Center as a specialized center for transplants in 1998. Center is also one of 24 overseas BMT centers assigned by U.S. National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and has full membership of European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) (CIC401).
The center has carried out allogeneic HSCTs (allo-HSCTs) including HLA-identical sibling HSCT, unrelated donor HSCT, related haploidentical HSCT, autologous HSCT and cord blood HSCT as curative therapies for a variety of malignant and nonmalignant hematologic diseases. According to the characteristics of Chinese population, we have established the general strategy for unrelated donor transplants and over 300 patients received unrelated donor transplants in our center. In the recent years, we have focused on research of pivotal obstacles in allo-HSCT including graft-versus-host disease, relapse and infection complications, new treatment options and ultimately improving the outcomes of allo-HSCT. We have developed a protocol of HLA haplo-identical stem cell transplants and achieved nearly 70% of long survival rates. These regimens have been adopted by other BMT centers nationwide and contributed to reduce the early death rate, lower the medical cost and patients' economic burden and improve the outcomes of hematological malignancies.
The center has achieved more than 20 Science Awards. "The clinical study on unrelated donor allogeneic bone marrow transplantation" was awarded National Scientific and Technological Advancement Award (2nd Prize) by State Council of the People's Republic of China in 2004. "The new treatment option for chronic myeloid leukemia by allogenetic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation combined with targeted drugs" was awarded Provincial Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards (1st Prize) in 2010. "Basic and application research of mesenchymal stem cells and tissue engineering" was award Provincial Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards (1st Prize) in 2011. Prof. Huang has been invited to give special presentations and oral presentations on international congress more than 30 times including ASH, BMT Tandem Meeting, EBMT and APBMT in recent five years.
In addition, the center for the treatment of multiple myeloma was established in 2008, led by Prof. Zhen Cai and focuses on the standardization of therapy. We have carried out collaborative relationship with the department of multiple myeloma in M.D.Anderson Cancer Center. This program is also recognized as the member of the Asia-Pacific division of the International Myeloma Working Group.
Research & Innovation
Our center focuses on the basic and clinical research on stem cell transplants, telomere regulatory protein, biological characteristics of hematological malignancies and its therapeutic mechanisms, as well as the basic and application research of stem cells.
The center has been in charge of more than 90 national and minister/provincial programs, including State Key Development Program for Basic Research of China, National High Technology Research and Development Program of China, Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China and Provincial Natural and Science Foundation Programs. We have published more than 200 academic papers in journals including Blood, Leukemia, Oncogene, Haematologica, FEBS Letters, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, et al. We have achieved more than 20 Science Awards, including National Scientific and Technological Advancement Award (2nd Prize) for " The clinical study on unrelated donor allogenetic bone marrow Transplantation", Provincial Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards (1st Prize) for "The clinical study on unrelated donor allogeneic bone marrow transplantation", Provincial Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards (1st Prize) for "The new treatment option for chronic myeloid leukemia by allogenetic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation combined with targeted drugs", Provincial Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards (1st Prize) for "Basic and application research of mesenchymal stem cells and tissue engineering", Provincial Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards (2nd Prize) for "Clinical and basic research on human telomeric repeat binding factor (hTRF1)" and "Clinical and basic research on myelodysplastic syndrome". The center was awarded 12 national invention patents.
Education & Training
The medical education includes both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Forty-one doctors and 55 masters of medicine have been trained and graduated from the center. At present, there are 42 postgraduate students pursuing their academic degrees.
We have organized annual meetings of the Hematology Committee, Chinese Medical Association, Zhejiang Branch and Society of Hematologic Malignancies, Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, Zhejiang Branch. We have participated in the organization of the 9th and 11th Asian-Pacific international bone marrow transplantation congress and successively held the 10th Asian-Pacific international bone marrow transplantation congress.
We have organized more than 10 times of national continuous education programs on the basic and clinical progresses of hematology, progress of unrelated donor transplants and highlights of the annual congress of the American Society of Hematology.