Northside Hospital Collaborating with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on Innovative Research Partnership

12/06/2013

Northside Hospital’s Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program is the only program in Georgia, and just one of ten in the country, selected to participate in the prestigious and groundbreaking Blood Cancer Research Partnership (BCRP), established by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). This BCRP is a network of sites for clinical trial testing of innovative blood cancer therapies in community oncology settings across the country. The Partnership brings clinical trials closer to where patients live and helps address one of the primary bottlenecks in the development of new cancer therapies: the need for more patients to take part in trials. The Northside Hospital BMT Program is one of the largest and most comprehensive programs in the nation, serving patients who require bone marrow or stem cell transplants and providing primary leukemia treatment. An accomplished group of nationally recognized physicians, along with a team of highly trained professionals, spearhead the amazing work that takes place at Northside. In 2013, the National Marrow Donor Program reported the hospital as having among the best survival outcomes in the country for related and unrelated bone marrow transplants for the fourth consecutive year. Involvement in clinical trials with local organizations, academic transplant programs and larger cooperative groups provides Northside with the latest tools and resources in treating leukemia, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Hodgkin’s Disease, Multiple Myeloma, Myelodyslastic Syndrome, Aplastic Anemia, breast and ovarian cancer and other blood and solid tumor disease. Far too often, patients diagnosed with cancer do not have access to ground-breaking trials due to lack of proximity to large medical centers. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute believes that the collaboration between community oncologists and Dana-Farber physicians will accelerate the advancement of and expansion of access to well-designed and original clinical trials for blood cancer patients being treated at community sites. LLS has invested $1,050,000 in this three-year project. “This novel partnership between Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and LLS supports the mission of both organizations – to bring cutting-edge clinical research to a wider spectrum of patients with blood cancers today in order to change the paradigms of clinical care for patients tomorrow,” said Blood Cancer Research Program Co-Director Robert Soiffer, M.D., who is the chief of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at Dana-Farber. “The BCRP consortium will provide the opportunity for the Division of Hematologic Malignancies to extend clinical research trials to patients who are outside our regional area and do not have the capacity to come to Dana-Farber.” “Northside is honored to be a part of such a distinguished group of transplant centers, who are united in their commitment to improving the outcomes for patients with life-threatening blood disorders” said Asad Bashey, M.D., Ph.D., medical director, BMT research program at Northside Hospital. “The number of hematopoietic cell transplants performed annually in the United States is growing each year and, as such, it is vital that transplant centers work together to develop and implement new and innovative therapies.” About Northside Hospital (http://www.northside.com) The Northside Hospital healthcare system is an 838 bed, not-for-profit healthcare provider with more than 80 locations across Metro Atlanta, including three acute care, state-of-the-art hospitals in Atlanta, Cherokee and Forsyth. Atlanta consumers have voted Northside their “Most Preferred Hospital for Overall Healthcare Services” in the National Research Corporation’s annual Healthcare Market Guide for 16 consecutive years. More than 2,200 physicians and 10,000 employees serve nearly 700,000 patient visits annually across a full range of medical services.