Our Approach

Novel Methods to Promote Recovery Current investigations to enhance immune reconstitution more

Transplant patients here not only have access to the expertise of all transplant team members, and to our transplant nursing and supportive services, but to the leading-edge methods developed through collaborative efforts between clinicians and investigators in our laboratories.

Among the many widely adopted transplantation advances that originated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering are:

• immune-cell (T cell) depletion to prevent graft versus host disease
• escalating doses of immune cells to treat relapses in transplanted patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia
• hyperfractionated total body irradiation, a method of delivering radiation therapy that increases its anti-cancer effects while decreasing its side effects; and
• improved methods to detect opportunistic infections in immune-compromised transplant patients.

Our physicians offer each patient the transplantation approach most likely to effect a cure or improve survival. They may suggest that a patient participate in a clinical trial if they feel there is a good chance for an improved outcome, and many patients who undergo transplantation at Memorial Sloan-Kettering decide to do so. For up-to-date details about current clinical trials, please visit our clinical trial section.