National Outcomes Report, FACT Accreditation Highlight Superior Performance of Roswell Park BMT Program

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two recent developments document the superior clinical care provided by the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The first is the latest report of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), which shows that Roswell Park continues to achieve higher than expected one-year survival ratings for allogeneic blood and marrow transplants. The second is the renewal of Roswell Park’s accreditation by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT).

Allogeneic blood and marrow transplantation (BMT) involves infusion of bone marrow or blood cells from a related or unrelated donor, and autologous BMT involves infusion of a person’s own cells. Both are forms of cellular therapy commonly used to treat many blood cancers, including acute and chronic leukemias, multiple myeloma and lymphoma.

“It takes a remarkable degree of coordination to consistently achieve superior patient outcomes for BMT. It wouldn’t happen without the diligence and dedication of the entire team,” says Philip McCarthy, MD, Professor of Oncology and Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Roswell Park. “We’re encouraged by the headway we’re making in such a complex and challenging area of medicine and by the hope these steps forward represent for patients with some very hard-to-treat hematologic cancers.”

The CIBMTR collects and annually publishes data from centers that perform the allogeneic transplants. For the fifth consecutive year, the organization identified Roswell Park as one of the few centers performing better than expected based on the fact that one-year survival for patients receiving donor transplants at the Institute were significantly better than would be expected for similar patients transplanted across all US transplant centers. The CIBMTR’s 2014 analysis is based on data for the period 2010–2012. Among 167 qualifying U.S. transplant centers, Roswell Park was one of 15 whose survival rate for patients one year following allogeneic blood/marrow transplantation exceeded what could be expected based on patient factors such as age, additional disorders/diseases, remission status and level of donor match. Of those 15 centers, nine, including Roswell Park, were identified as performing above the expected rate in both the 2013 and 2014 CIBMTR reports.

FACT is an internationally recognized accrediting body for hospitals and medical institutions offering cellular therapy. The designation, which applies to allogeneic and autologous transplant services for both adult and pediatric patients, indicates that an institution has met the most rigorous standards in every aspect of cellular therapy, from clinical care and donor management to cell collection, processing and storage. Roswell Park has held FACT accreditation continuously since 2002.

For more information about the CIBMTR and its reports, visit cibmtr.org. For more information about FACT, go to factwebsite.org.

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The mission of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1898, Roswell Park is one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit www.roswellpark.org, call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or email AskRoswell@Roswellpark.org. Follow Roswell Park on Facebook and Twitter.