SOURCE: AMY MERVES
Fox Chase Cancer Center and Temple University Hospital celebrated the opening of a new $2.1 million outpatient bone marrow and stem cell transplant clinic inside Jeanes Hospital on the Fox Chase campus last Thursday.
Mayor Jim Kenney joined Fox Chase-Temple officials for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the fifth-floor unit, which serves patients suffering from life-threatening diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, aplastic anemia and other blood disorders.
The new clinic covers 11,500 square feet, almost doubling the floor space of the previous Fox Chase-Temple BMT unit that was housed in Friends Hall at Jeanes. The new space contains five exam rooms, nine infusion bays, a procedure room and two observation rooms containing state-of-the-art medical equipment.
The new outpatient clinic has a capacity of 40 to 50 patient visits per day and features support from Jeanes’ rapid response and code teams for patients who need prompt transition to the on-site emergency room or intensive care unit.
Patient rooms are spacious and feature light-filtering shades that can be adjusted to patients’ needs, as some patients become sensitive to sunlight as a result of cellular treatments. There is also space dedicated for ailing patients who need limited exposure to others.
The Fox Chase-Temple BMT Program is a growing one, having conducted 76 transplants in 2012, 71 in 2013, 103 in 2014 and 126 last year. The program has performed 1,700 transplants since its 1988 founding.
Patients have a choice of autologous treatment (a transplant using the patient’s own bone marrow or stem cells) or allogeneic treatment (a transplant using the cells of a family member or unrelated matching donor). Fox Chase-Temple performed 100 autologous transplants last year and 26 allogeneic.
Bone marrow or stem cell transplants are available to patients of all ages. From 2011 through ’15, the program performed 467 transplants, 110 of which involved patients aged 65 and over. The one-year survival rate for Fox Chase-Temple BMT patients in 2014 was about 85 percent for autologous transplants and about 63 percent for allogeneic transplants.
Temple University Hospital, which along with Fox Chase Cancer Center and Jeanes Hospital are part of the Temple University Health System, was named a Blue Distinction Center for Transplants by Independence Blue Cross last year in recognition of its bone marrow transplant program.
The program is fully accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy and participates in the National Marrow Donor Program. It is one of three institutions in the nation to offer bloodless transplant procedures upon patient request. ••
Bigger and better: The grand opening of a new $2.1 million outpatient bone marrow and stem cell transplant clinic inside Jeanes Hospital was held last Thursday. The new clinic covers 11,500 square feet, almost doubling the floor space of the previous Fox Chase-Temple BMT unit. SOURCE: AMY MERVES
