CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – The Medical University of South Carolina reports that the survival rate for patients in their Bone and Marrow Transplant Program is higher than the national average.
A recently released study shows that MUSC’s one-year survival rate for patients who receive an allogeneic transplant is better than expected, compared to similar programs across the country.
Dr. Michelle Hudspeth is the Director of Adult and Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at MUSC.
Hudspeth said that an allogeneic transplant is when doctors use stem cells from a healthy donor to treat patients with blood cancers, sickle cell disease, bone marrow failure syndromes or other serious conditions.
She said that the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research is an organization that gathers information on transplants.
Hudspeth said the CIBMTR looks at patients who have previously been treated and then assigns an expected survival rate. For this specific study, the CIBMTR looked at MUSC patient data from 2020-2022.
She said they then use that data to help researchers and doctors understand the results of transplants better, which helps improve treatments and progress in the field.
“This data obviously lags behind a little bit because you have to be able to follow patients and see their overall outcomes. What we found out in December is that when the CIBMTR looked for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022, for patients who had a first, what we call allogeneic transplant, meaning they got stem cells from another person- which is the most complicated type of transplant that we do- When you looked at our patients and their outcomes, we were overperforming. We did better than expected,” Hudspeth said.
There are 172 stem cell transplant centers across the U.S. that the CIBMTR tracks. The organization evaluates each center’s survival rate by considering factors like patient age, existing health conditions, and the stage of their disease.
Hudspeth said that out of the 172 centers, only 12 performed better than expected during the evaluation years, and MUSC is one of those 12.
“Then what CIBMTR does is it looks at the patients that we have treated, and it assigns an expected survival rate. It says that based on the types of patients you have and their complexities, here is what we think your survival is expected to be. Of course, that’s one number. Then with statistics, it’s got what we call competence intervals- there are some ranges beyond that. If your survival is better than expected, you’re considered an overperforming center,” Hudspeth said.
She said she’s excited that their program performed better than expected, especially considering that the years the CIBMTR studied were during the height of the COVID pandemic.
“What was so notable is that obviously each of those years was a COVID pandemic year, where the world, of course, was turned upside down, but particularly the world we’re talking about are some of the most immune-compromised patients…so I’m really thrilled that the team continued to be high performing and worked so hard for our patients and achieve these outcomes,” Hudspeth said.
Hudspeth continued to say that most of their patients are heavily pre-treated, meaning they’ve already gone through a lot of intensive therapy.
“Those patients go from being in terrible shape to generally performing much better. Right now, they’ve got a good performing organ. In stem cell transplant, it’s really quite different. We have to give very intensive chemotherapy and/or radiation before we can even get the stem cells. We’re actually making patients much sicker and much worse before the transplant process. It really becomes a real testament to the team. It’s a really high skill set to take care of these very complicated patients,” she said.
Hudspeth said patients are required to stay at MUSC for at least 100 days, adding that the transplant process is pretty intense.
“These people are at the most vulnerable times of their lives, they’re [family members of the patient] entrusting us with somebody who is their everything, that’s what it’s about. We want to provide the very best medical care, that’s why we’re here. It’s nothing fancier than that. We are here to try to help patients be cured and to go on and live a fantastic life with their family,” she said.
Hudspeth said the center typically averages between 200 to 220 transplant procedures per year.
She added that MUSC is also one of the very few centers that have combined adult and pediatric care programs.
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MUSC Bone and Marrow Transplant Program survival rate exceeds national average
