ONS Connect - March 2008 - (Page 11)

Leslie S. Parran, MS, RN, AOCN®, CNA-BC, and the University of Minnesota are celebrating 40 years of successful transplantation. The growth of Transplantation In its infancy no longer, “the University of Minnesota Medical Center and University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, Fairview Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, recently celebrated its 5,000th transplant since 1968,” says ONS member Leslie S. Parran, MS, RN, AOCN®, CNA-BC, senior director of Blood and Marrow Transplant Services in Minneapolis, MN. “In 2008, we will celebrate 40 years of continual innovation in BMT.” BMT was first used successfully in twins, who had identical genetic makeup, to force leukemia into remission. The discovery of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing and the need to have as close a match as possible between donor and patient enabled the University of Minnesota to perform the first successful allogeneic, related-donor transplantation in 1968 (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 2007). Over the years, BMT has evolved from transplanting stem cell sources of bone marrow for the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma to using umbilical cord blood and peripheral blood stem cells for a broader array of diseases, including multiple myeloma, aplastic anemia, myelodysplasia, immunodeficiency diseases, hemoglobinopathies, Fanconi anemia, and inborn errors of metabolism. “While we do perform standard transplants, our progress in BMT has afforded us the opportunity to transplant rarer and higher-risk disease and explore new transplant options, such as nonmyeloablative transplant,” Parran explains. “Our highly developed research program has broadened our ability to incorporate new therapies into the transplant process such as natural killer cells, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and T regulatory cells.” Although historically relapsed leukemia and lymphoma were not treatable March 2008 ONS CONNECT 11

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ONS Connect - March 2008 Contents Editor's Note Just In From Then to Now A Year in the Life—Month Three Web Connect Capitol Connection Notice Nursing Now Recognize Hepatic Sinusoidal Obstruction Syndrome in Patients With Cancer Caregiver Care Elasticity of Cells May Help Researchers to Identify Cancer Calendar of Events ONS Congress Your Thoughts and Comments Are a Valued Decision-Making Resource Staying On Top

ONS Connect - March 2008

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