Bone Marrow Transplants Available in Fargo
The Sanford Roger Maris Cancer Center in Fargo now offers a bone marrow transplant program to patients across the Upper Midwest. This program is the first of its kind in the state of North Dakota.
Bone marrow transplants, also known as stem cell transplants, are an important treatment option for patients with blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other immune and blood conditions affecting bone marrow.
These transplants help patients whose stem cells have been damaged by disease or high doses of chemotherapy. The treatment replaces damaged or unhealthy cells with healthy ones.
Sanford Health currently offers autologous transplants. For an autologous transplant, a patient’s healthy stem cells are harvested to be transplanted back after chemotherapy.
Allogenic transplants will be available later this year. CAR-T cell therapy will be available in 2023. Allogenic transplants use healthy stem cells from a donor, and CAR-T-cell therapy uses genetically modified T-cells to target cancer cells.
Seth Maliske, MD, is a hematologist and bone marrow transplant physician at the Sanford Roger Maris Cancer Center. He witnessed the start of the new transplant program and has seen its effects firsthand.
“Having a stem cell transplant program here in Fargo brings a lot of joy, energy and motivation to keep excelling, doing better and bringing more technology to Fargo,” he said.
The program makes a difference for patients like Kathy Score, who was first diagnosed with cancer in 2018.
“When I was trying to decide where I should have my stem cell transplant, Dr. Maliske visited me in the hospital and explained everything. I felt very confident in him,” Score said.
She chose Sanford Health for her transplant. By receiving care in Fargo, Score was able to stay close to her family and didn’t have to travel far for her treatments.
She also benefited from integrated team care. Throughout her cancer journey, she worked with a variety of providers dedicated to keeping her comfortable, including a nutritionist, physical therapist and staff members providing massages and leading meditation.
“Those extra services make it not just a medical thing,” she said. “They add all these services that people need to feel more human, more comfortable and more like they matter.”
Patients experience the difference in care at the Sanford Roger Maris Cancer Center, and so do the providers.
“Being able to work in the cancer center and watching people become so overjoyed at what we’re able to do for patients – it’s a fun thing to be a part of,” said Dr. Maliske.
Visit sanfordhealth.org to refer a patient to Sanford Health’s bone marrow transplant program. Call (701) 234-6161 to learn more.