• The Blood & Marrow Transplant InfoNet

  This non-profit organization formerly called the BMT Newsletter provides some of the most useful information for patients undergoing or considering a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. They publish a book by Susan Stewart, Bone Marrow Transplants: a Book of Basics for Patients . They also mail out a series of very informative newsletters. Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Transplants: a Guide for Patients is an updated version of their book.
  

  To subscribe:
  Blood and Marrow Transplant InfoNet
  2900 Skokie Valley Road
  Highland Park, Illinois 60035
  Telephone: 1-847-831-1913
  Toll Free: 888-597-7674
  Fax: 847-831-1943
  E-mail: help@bmtinfonet.org
  Web page: http://www.bmtinfonet.org/
  Donations are appreciated.

  The newsletters and the book: Bone Marrow Transplants: a Book of Basics for Patients are available on the Blood and Marrow Transplant Newsletter (formerly BMT Newsletter) web page .

  Pointers to some issues:

  • May 1994 (Issue #23) Breast Cancer including an article on Stem Cell Transplant vs Bone Marrow Transplant
  • September 1994 (Issue #25) - BMTs for Acute Myelogeneous Leukemia
  • November 1994 (Issue #26) - BMTs for Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
  • March 1995 (Issue #28) - BMTs for Chronic Myelogeneous Leukemia
  • January, 1995 (Issue #27) Donors -- Some Very Special People

  

• Bone Marrow and Cord Blood Donation and Transplantation a web site of the United States Department of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), provides information on cord and unrelated donor transplants, describing the process of searching for a donor as well as the actual transplant process. There are reports on the number of transplants performed at U.S. transplant center, but both type (autologous, allogeneic, unrelated, cord blood) as well as the number of transplants performed. Survival data is also available on this site.

  

• BMT Basics is a project of the Mavin Foundation. It is targeted to families in Washington state who have a child who needs to have a blood or marrow transplant. It focuses on the needs of mixed heritage and minority families. The site contains useful information for any family with a child that needs a transplant.

• The National Bone Marrow Transplant Link is a non-profit (501(c)3) organization whose mission to reduce the burdens of bone marrow transplant patients and their families through education and support. NBMTlink publishes two booklets for BMT patients: "Friends Helping Friends, Bone Marrow Transplant Resource Guide" and The "Surviviors' Guide to a Bone Marrow Transplant, What to Expect and How to Get Through It" . a new publication is now also available. as of april 14, 1999 copies can be ordered and it is in the process of being put on their web site.

• The Choosing a Transplant Center: a Patient's Guide provides information on all National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Transplant Centers currently doing unrelated BMTs including: diseases treated, donor match criteria, cost information and results at various centers.

• BMT Net a guide to BMT information on the Internet, also run by International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry .

• Me and My Marrow was inspired by 13-year old Cristina Cuzzone who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 9 and underwent a bone marrow transplant at age 13. This book is aimed at children and includes stories and advice from other children, it explains what a transplant is, how it is done, what treatment will feel like, and how to cope during difficult times. The site requires the use of Javascript, or you can download the PDF version of the book .

• Haplo.org is a website intended to bring physicians and scientists up-to-date on the developments in haploidentical stem cell transplantation (mismatched transplants). It also has a patient section. It plans to publish the latest research results, original commentaries, reviews and conference reports. Although intended for physicians and researchers there is also information for those who are new to the field, and those already working with mismatched transplants.

• The Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) is a nonprofit corporation developed by the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) for the purposes of self-assessment and accreditation in the field of hematopoietic cell therapy.

• Bone Marrow Transplantation and Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation: Questions and Answers a Cancer Facts sheet from the National Cancer Institute .

• Blood and Marrow Transplant Resources is a page developed by Mark Patton and his wife, Mary Grace. Mark has had 5 autologous transplants to treat his Multiple Myeloma.

• BMT Resource NetMarks , compiled by Dr. Romeo Mandanas' of the OUHSC-Columbia Presbyterian Blood and Marrow Transplant Program .
  

Included here are articles and abstracts from journals on bone marrow and stem cell transplants. articles are grouped by different subjects and are listed in reverse chronological order (most recent articles first).

• General Articles
• Side Effects
• Alternate Donors, Unrelated and Mismatched Donors
• Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
• Breast Cancer
• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)
• Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML)
• Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin's Disease
• Other Diseases

General Articles

• Art's report on the Tandem BMT meeting held in Keystone, Colorado in February, 2007.

• Art's report on the Tandem BMT meeting held in Keystone, Colorado in February, 2005.

• Higher Mortality After Allogeneic Peripheral-Blood Transplantation Compared With Bone Marrow in Children and Adolescents: The Histocompatibility and Alternate Stem Cell Source Working Committee of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry by Eapen, Mary, et. al. from The Journal of Clinical Oncology , Vol 22, Issue 24, December 15, 2004, page 4872 (article abstract only). See also the accompanying editorial, Allogeneic Peripheral Blood Versus Bone Marrow Transplantation: Children Are Small Adults and More by Donna A. Wall. This is a comparision of peripheral stem cells versus bone marrow from HLA identical siblings in children. Children who recieved peripheral stem cells did poorer then children who recieved bone marrow, this is in contrast to adults, where most studies have shown patients who recieve peripheral blood from HLA identical siblings do better.

• Art's report on the Tandem BMT meeting held in Orlando, Florida in February, 2004.

• Marrow versus peripheral blood for geno-identical allogeneic stem cell transplantation in acute myelocytic leukemia: influence of dose and stem cell source shows better outcome with rich marrow by Gorin, Norbert C. et. al., from Blood, Vol. 102 No. 8 (October 15, 2003: page 3043. This article compared peripheral blood versus bone marrow from HLA identical sibling donors. In particular it compared 3 groups, those recieving bone marrow with a higher number of cells (above the median), those recieving bone marrow with a lower number of cells and those who recieved periperal stem cells. Patients who were in the group that recieved the higher number of bone marrw cells did better then the other two groups.

• Art's report on the Tandem BMT meeting held in Keystone, Colorado in January/February, 2003. This can also be downloaded as Portable Document Format (PDF) file which should be easier to print (You will need the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™ ).

• Transplantation of mobilized peripheral blood cells to HLA-identical siblings with standard-risk leukemia by Schmitz, Norbert et. al., from Blood, Vol. 100 No. 3 (August 1, 2002: page 761. This study compared the use of bone marrow versus peripheral stem cells from HLA identical siblings in Europe. There was no significant difference in survival between the two groups although the incidence of chronic GVHD was higher in the peripheral stem cell group.

• Art's report on part of the Tandem BMT meeting held in Orlando in February, 2002.

• Non-Myeloablative Transplants for Malignant Disease , Rainer F. Storb, Richard Champlin, Stanley R. Riddell, Makato Murata, Sophia Bryant and Edus H. Warren Hematology , American Society of Hematology Education Program Book , 2001. Non-myeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplants are being used to treat patients with many different malignant hematological diseases, they do not attempt to eridacate the disease by high-dose chemotherapy and radiation, but by using the donor stem cells to get a graft-versus-tumor effect, with it is hoped less morbidity and mortality. This article discusses advances in the use of nonmyeloablative transplants.

• Transplantation of Bone Marrow as Compared with Peripheral-Blood Cells from HLa-Identical Relatives in Patients with Hematologic Cancers , from the New England Journal of Medicine , January 18, 2001, Volume 344, No. 3, page 175 by Bensinger, William I. et. al. (registration, which is free is required). Describes a randomized comparing the use of bone marrow versus peripheral-blood cells from HLa-identical relatives to treat various hematological cancers, at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) , City of Hope and Stanford University . Overall survival at 2 years in the peripheral-blood cells group was better then in the bone marrow group (66 percent versus 54 percent). See also, Stem cells outperform marrow , Bensinger study shows fewer complications, higher survival for leukemia from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Center News and Blood Cancer Transplants: Peripheral Blood Cells Better Than Bone Marrow? , from the National Cancer Institute .

• Graft-Versus-Host Disease in Children Who Have Received a Cord-Blood or Bone Marrow Transplant from an HLa-Identical Sibling , from the New England Journal of Medicine June 22, 1999, Vol 342, No. 25, page 1846, by Vanderson Rocha et al. (registration, which is free is required). This study compared 113 children (under the age of 15) who underwent cord-blood transplants from matched siblings with 2052 children who under went bone marrow transplants from matched siblings donors. Recipients of cord blood were less likely to have GVHD (both acute and chrnoic), but engraftment took longer.

• Imaging in Oncology - Imaging In Bone Marrow Transplantation , by Robert A. Clark from Cancer Control: Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center , Vol 6, No. 1, pages 84-89, 1999. An overview of BMTs and complications from them, with a number of images.

• Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation by Imad a. Tabbara, M.D., from the Southern Medical Journal September, 1996. an overview of allogeneic BMTs, complications, diseases treated and results, the article includes many references.

• Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation by Patricia C. Buchsel and Pamela M. Kapustay, 1995. From the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) .

Side Effects, including long term side effects

• Long-Term Survival and Late Deaths after allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation , from the New England Journal of Medicine , July 1, 1999, Vol. 341, No. 1, page 14 by Socie, Gerard., et. al. (registration, which is free is required). This articles examines the probability of dying in patients with aplastic anemia or leukemia who recieved a bone marrow transplant and are free of disease 2 years after transplantation. also an accompanying editorial Does Bone Marrow Transplantation Confer a Normal Life Span? , by E. Donnall Thomas, in the same edition. Followup Correspondence: Long-Term Survival after Bone Marrow Transplantation from the Obtober 28, 1999 issue, Vol. 341, No. 18, page 1394.

• Solid Cancers after Bone Marrow Transplantation , from the New England Journal of Medicine March 27, 1997, Vol. 336, No. 13, page 897, by Rochelle E. Curtis, et. al. (registration, which is free is required). also an accompanying editorial Neoplasms and transplantation -- trading swords for plowshares by David P. Schenkein and Robert S. Schwartz in the same edition. Followup Correspondence: Solid Cancers after Bone Marrow Transplantation from the July 31, 1997 issue, Vol. 337, No. 5, page 345.

• Health and Functional Status of Long-Term Survivors of Bone Marrow Transplantation from annals of Internal Medicine . 1 February, 1997. 126:184-192. This is an article on the health status of BMT patients who have survived more then 5 years after their BMT. Most of the almost 800 survivors had a relatively good quality of life.

Alternate Donors, Unrelated and Mismatched Donors

• Transplantation of anergic Histoincompatible Bone Marrow allografts , from the New England Journal of Medicine , June 3, 1999, Vol. 340, No. 22, page 1704 by Guinan, Eva C., et. al. (registration, which is free is required). Describes the use of one HLa haplotype mismatched bone marrow (parents or siblings) in 12 patients, in which white blood cells from the recipients' blood were collected before a BMT, and cultured with irradiated cells from the recipient in the presence of CTLa-4-Ig before being transfused into the recipient. also an accompanying editorial The New Immunology -- The End of Immunosuppressive Drug Therapy? , by Robert S. Schwartz, in the same edition. also see Drug Blocks Graft Versus Host Disease In Mismatched Bone Marrow Transplant from The Doctor's Guide to the Internet . Followup Correspondence: Transplantation of anergic Histoincompatible Bone Marrow Cells from the September 30, 1999 issue, Vol. 341, No. 14, page 1081.

• In the Largest U.S. Study Ever Looking at Genetic Matching Of Marrow Donors Researchers Found That Outcomes Can Significantly Be Improved For Leukemia Patients , a press release from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), dated November 9, 1998. This press release describes the work described in the article Optimizing Outcome After Unrelated Marrow Transplantation by Comprehensive Matching of HLA Class I and II Alleles in the Donor and Recipien (article abstract only) by Effie W. Petersdor, et.al, from Blood , Vol. 92 No. 10 (November 15, 1998): page 3515.

• The Quest for a Bone Marrow Donor -- Optimal or Maximal HLa Matching? by Jon J. van Rood, and Machteld Oudshoorn, an editorial from the New England Journal of Medicine October 22, 1998, Vol. 339, No. 17 page 1238. Describes two articles from this issue of NEJM on different approaches to bone marrow transplantation for those without matched sibling donors. The first approach uses matched unrelated donors and uses DNa typing to examine the rates of severe acute graft-versus-host disease and treatment related mortaility. (access to full text articles requires registration, which is free). The article is Effect of Matching of Class I HLa alleles on Clinical Outcome after Transplantation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells from an Unrelated Donor , page 1177-85 by Sasazuki et al. The second approach uses large doses of T-cell depleted peripheral stem cells from related donors with one fully mismatched hla haplotype. The article is Treatment of High-Risk acute Leukemia with T-Cell-Depleted Stem Cells from Related Donors with One Fully Mismatched HLa Haplotype page 1185-93 by aversa et al. also see the news article Unmatched bone marrow transplants successfully treat leukaemia from British Medical Journal , 1998;317:1175 (31 October). Followup Correspondence: Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation for acute Leukemia from the March 11, 1999 issue, Vol. 340, No. 10, page 809.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

• Busulfan plus cyclophosphamide compared with total-body irradiation plus cyclophosphamide before marrow transplantation for myeloid leukemia: long-term follow-up of 4 randomized studies , Gérard Socié, et. al. Blood , 15 December 2001, Vol. 98, No. 13, pp. 3569-3574. Analyzed four randomized studies comparing transplants with cylophosphamide (cytoxan) and total-body irradiation (TBI), versus busulfan (Bu) and cylophosphamide. For patients with AML survival was superior with the TBI regimen.

• Chemotherapy Compared with Autologous or Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation in the Management of Acute Myeloid Leukemia in First Remission , from the New England Journal of Medicine , December 3, 1998, Vol. 339, No. 23, page 1649 by Peter A. Cassileth, et. al. (registration, which is free is required). Also an accompanying editorial Transplantation in First Remission of Acute Myeloid Leukemia , by Alan K. Burnett, in the same edition.

Breast Cancer

• Conventional-Dose Chemotherapy Compared with High-Dose Chemotherapy plus Autologous Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation for Metastatic Breast Cancer by Stadtmauer, Edward A. et. al, from the New England Journal of Medicine , April 13, 2000, Vol. 342, No. 15, page 1069 (registration, which is free is required). This study randomized women with metastatic breast cancer with a complete response to induction chemotherapy to high dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant or up to 24 cycles of conventional dose chemotherapy and found no survival advantage for the high dose protocol. Also an accompanying editorial High-Dose Chemotherapy plus Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation for Metastatic Breast Cancer , by Marc E. Lippman, in the same edition. Also see: Correspondence: High-Dose Chemotherapy plus Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Rescue for Metastatic Breast Cancer from the August 10, 2000, Vol. 343, No. 6, edition page 439.

• Randomised trial of high-dose chemotherapy and haemopoietic progenitor-cell support in operable breast cancer with extensive axillary lymph-node involvement , Sjoerd Rodenhuis, et. al. Netherlands Cancer Institute, amsterdam, Netherlands from the Lancet 15 august 1998, Volume 352 pages 515-21 (registration is required but free). This articles concludes that women younger than 60 years, with breast cancer with extensive axillary-node metastases, "who received high-dose therapy did no better than patients who received conventional chemotherapy in terms of survival". also see the News article High dose chemotherapy for breast cancer queried , by Deborah Josefson from the British Medical Journal , 22 august 1998, Volume 317, page 490.

• The Role of High-Dose Chemotherapy and Bone Marrow Transplant or Peripheral Stem-Cell Support in the Treatment of Breast Cancer (article is no longer available), Background and Preliminary Results of Five Studies to Be Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO) Annual Meeting May 15-18, 1999, in Atlanta, GA. The results of 5 studies comparing conventional chemo therapy and high dose chemotherapy with bone marrow or peripheral stem cell transplants will be presented. The abstracts of the 5 articles are here.

  One of the articles presented at the ASCO conference included falsified data. The article is: Randomised, Controlled Trial of High Dose Chemotherapy (HD-CNVp) vs. Standard Dose (CAF) Chemotherapy for High Risk, Surgically Treated, Primary Breast Cancer , by W.R. Bezwoda.

  Other articles on these studies include:

  • High-Dose Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer, from the National Cancer Institute .
  • High-dose chemotherapy for high-risk primary breast cancer: an on-site review of the Bezwoda study by Weiss, Raymond B, et. al from the Lancet 18 March, 2000, Volume 355, Number 9208 page 1900 (registration is required but free). also editorial comments, after Bezwoda by Richard Horton, page 1866 and Where next with stem-cell-supported high-dose therapy for breast cancer? by Jonas Bergh, page 1867 from the same issue.

• Prognostic and Predictive Factors for Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer Undergoing Aggressive Induction Therapy Followed by High-Dose Chemotherapy With Autologous Stem-Cell Support from The Journal of Clinical Oncology , Vol 17, Issue 10, October, 1999, page 3064, by Rizzieri, D. A. The entire article is available (free, no registration). The article discusses a retrospective review of patients who underwent autologous BMTs for breast cancer at Duke University Medical Center and what subsets of patients responded well to the treatment. Also see Research Identifies Factors Leading To Better Breast Cancer Treatment from The Doctor's Guide to the Internet.

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)

• Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia - An Emerging Modality , by Z. Steven Pavletic, and Philip J. bierman, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, from Medscape Hematology-Oncology eJournal , Vol 1, No 4; July/August 1998. A review of autologous and allogeneic bone marrow and stem cell transplants for CLL.

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML)

• Busulfan plus cyclophosphamide compared with total-body irradiation plus cyclophosphamide before marrow transplantation for myeloid leukemia: long-term follow-up of 4 randomized studies , Gérard Socié, et. al. Blood , 15 December 2001, Vol. 98, No. 13, pp. 3569-3574. Analyzed four randomized studies comparing transplants with cylophosphamide (cytoxan) and total-body irradiation (TBI), versus busulfan (Bu) and cylophosphamide. For patients with CML for there was no difference in survival between the two regimens

• Major-Histocompatibility-Complex Class I Alleles and Antigens in Hematopoietic-Cell Transplantation by Petersdorf, E.W., et. al., New England Journal of Medicine , Vol. 345, No. 25, December 20, 2001, pages 1794-1800 (The full article is available for free 6 months after publication, the article abstract is available now.) This article reports on a study of a large number of MUD transplants for CML done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center . It looked at whether HLA mismatches that are detectable only at the DNA level are associated with a lower risk of graft failure then mismatches that are detectable by serology. The risk of graft failure in patients with a donor with an HLA mismatch that is detectable only at the DNA level is not increased compared with patients with a donor with no mismatches.

Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin's Disease

• Initial Treatment of Aggressive Lymphoma with High-Dose Chemotherapy and Autologous Stem-Cell Support by Milpied, Noel, et. al. et. al., New England Journal of Medicine , Vol. 350, No. 13, March 25, 2004, pages 1278-1295. 197 patients with disseminated aggressive lymphoma were randomly assigned to standard CHOP chemotherapy or high dose chemotherapy and an autologous stem cell transplant. The patients who underwent autologous stem cell transplant had better event-free survival at 5 years and patient with the highest risk disease had significantly better overall survival at 5 years.

Other Diseases

• A Comparison of Allografting with Autografting for Newly Diagnosed Myeloma from the New England Journal of Medicine , March 15, 2007, Vol. 356, No. 11, page 1110 by Benedetto Bruno, et. al. (The full article is available for free 6 months after publication, the article abstract is available now.). This study from Europe reports on 162 patients with Multiple Myeloma who recieved either two autologous stem cell transplants or if they had a HLA matched sibling donor, an autologous transplant followed by a nonmyeloablative transplant using the sibling stem cells. The median overall survival for the patients who recieved the allogeneic transplant was 80 months, which signicantly longer then those who recieved two autologous transplants (54 months).

• Single versus Double Autologous Stem-Cell Transplantation for Multiple Myeloma from the New England Journal of Medicine , December 25, 2003, Vol. 349, No. 26, page 2495 by Michel Attal, et. al. (The full article is available for free 6 months after publication, the article abstract is available now.). A randomized trial of 399 patients with myeloma was done. All patients were initially treated with chemotherapy and were randomly assigned to have either one or two successive autologous stem-cell transplantations. Patients who recieved two transplants had higher overall survival, in particular those who do not have a very good partial response to the first transplant did better.

• Treatment of Chronic Granulomatous Disease with Nonmyeloablative Conditioning and a T-Cell-Depleted Hematopoietic Allograft from the New England Journal of Medicine , March 21, 2001, Vol. 344, No. 12, page 881 by Mitchell E. Horwitz, et. al. (registration, which is free is required). 10 patients, 5 of them children, with chronic granulomatous disease, a rare inherited disease in phagocytes are defective in killing of microorganisms, were treated with "mini" stem cell transplants and in 7 of the patients the disease went away. Also see a related editorial What Is the Best Way to Treat Inherited Disorders? , by Alan B. Ezekowitz, in the same edition.

• Bone Marrow Transplantation without Myeloablation for Sickle Cell Disease , letter to the New England Journal of Medicine , January 4, 2001, Vol. 344, No. 1, page 68, by Bruce R. Blazar, and John E. Wagner. This letter describes a patient at the University of Minnesota treated with a mini-transplant for sickle cell anemia.

• Autologous Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation for Behcet's Disease with Pulmonary Involvement , letter to the New England Journal of Medicine , January 4, 2001, Vol. 344, No. 1, page 69, by Manfred Hensel, et. al.. This letter describes 2 patients treated in Germany for Behcet's disease with autologous stem-cell transplants.

• Regression of Metastatic Renal-Cell Carcinoma after Nonmyeloablative allogeneic Peripheral-Blood Stem-Cell Transplantation from the New England Journal of Medicine , September 14, 2000, Vol. 343, No. 11, page 750 by Richard Childs, et. al. (registration, which is free is required). 19 patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma were treated with "mini-BMTs" from sibling donors. 3 of the 19 patients had complete and durable remissions, 7 had partial remission. also see a related editorial Cancer Immunotherapy with alloreactive Lymphocytes , Shimon Slavin, in the same edition. Followup Correspondence: Treatment of Renal-Cell Cancer by Transplantation of allogeneic Stem Cells from the January 11, 2001 issue, Vol. 344, No. 2, page 137.

• Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation for the Treatment of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency , from the New England Journal of Medicine , February 18, 1999, Vol. 340, No. 7, page 508 by Rebecca H. Buckley, et. al. (registration, which is free is required). This article describes the experience with bone marrow transplants (without chemotherapy) for 89 infants with severe combined immunodeficiency who transplants at Duke University Medical Center between May 1982 and September 1998. Also an accompanying editorial Thirty Years of Bone Marrow Transplantation for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency , by Alain Fischer, in the same edition.

• Bone marrow transplantation for autoimmune diseases , an editorial from the British Medical Journal , March 20, 1999, Vol 318, page 750-751. An editorial by Michael Potter, Carol Black, and Abi Berger on the current state of using BMTs to treat autoimmune diseases.

• Treatment of High-Risk Neuroblastoma with Intensive Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy, Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation, and 13-cis-Retinoic Acid , from the New England Journal of Medicine , October 14, 1999, Vol. 341, No. 16, page 1165 by Matthay, Katherine K., et. al. (registration, which is free is required). Shows that autologous BMT is superior to conventional chemotherapy in the treatement of Neuroblastoma, in addition the use of 13-cis-Retinoic Acid results in even more improvement. Also see Innovative Treatment Improves Survival In Childhood Cancer patients from The Doctor's Guide to the Internet .

• Links to articles about clinical trails at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center . The Seattle Times published a series of article, in March, 2001 on clinic trials done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the early to middle 1980s. We have collected links to the original articles, follow-ups from Fred Hutchinson, Laura Landro of the Wall Street Journals and others on this page.

  
  

• Questions and answers about Bone Marrow Transplantation and Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation from Cancernet .

• Selected articles on bone marrow transplants from Conquest magazine , published by the The University of Texas M. D. anderson Cancer Center , Houston, Texas:
  • New Techniques allow Outpatient Bone Marrow Transplantation , Summer, 1994.
  • Technology Extends Transplant Options , Spring, 1994

• Selected articles on bone marrow transplants from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Center News :
  • Quality of Life after BMT , June 1, 1995.
  • Filter bypasses need to screen donor blood for virus deadly to transplant patient , November 2, 1995.
  • Earlier unrelated transplants mean much-improved result for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia , December 7, 1995. This article is summarizes a paper presented by Dr. John Hansen, head of the Clinical Research Division's Immunogenetics Program, at the 1995 American Society of Hematology meeting in Seattle.
  • Transplants can cure sickle cell disease, says Center-led five-year clinical study , august 15, 1996.
  • Radiolabeled antibody therapy promises to cut relapse rate , December 5, 1996.
  • Transplants in a doctor's clinic? New low-dose study suggests its's possible , May 15, 1997.
  • BMT-Talk: Martin outlines approaches for treatment, prevention of graft-vs.-host disease , august 17, 1997, this article is on a presentation by Dr. Paul Martin at a reunion of participants in the BMT-Talk mailing list.
  • Minnesota woman becomes first U.S. patient to undergo transplant for autoimmune disease called scleroderma , September 17, 1997.
  • Two studies investigate treatments for dangerous virus , describes two trials for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) a potentially fatal virus that can cause pneumonia in BMT patients.
• Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation: Leukemia/Lymphoma/Myeloma a booklet from The Leukemia Society of america also available as PDF file . This booklet describes bone marrow transplant in layman's terms, with information on the reasons for BMTs, the different kinds of BMT, donor preparation and more. In Spanish: Trasplante de células progenitoras sanguíneas y de médula , also available as a PDF file .

• High-dose chemotherapy (HDC) with bone marrow transplant for metastatic breast cancer , Second Edition (1996), updated in 2000. ECRI is an independent, nonprofit health service research organization, whose mission is to improve patient care. This patient guide is based on published articles on high dose chemotherapy with bone marrow transplant that were published through February, 1996. Updates from studies published in 2000 are available here as well.

• Choosing a Transplant Center , from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) adapted from the January, 1994 issue of the BMT Newsletter . Provides questions to ask a potential BMT center and a worksheet to help decide on which center to go to. It also provides FHCRC's answers to the questions, but should be useful for patients at other institutions.

• The American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI) , their mission statement: To advance the science and application of histocompatibility and immunogenetics; to provide a forum for the exchange of information; and to advocate the highest standards for clinical testing in the interest of optimal patient care.
• The British Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (BSHI) , a non profit making, non political society. Interests of BSHI labs include among other things Tissue typing (Matching donor and recipient for solid organ and bone marrow transplantation and blood transfusion:- the Histocompatibility bit).

• Ron Marriage's BMT Links offers links to sites with excellent information.

• Survivors' Stories , links to stories of other BMT survivors.

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