Blood and marrow transplant and cellular therapy program

Children’s Wisconsin has been home to a blood and marrow transplant and cellular therapy program since 1980. Having performed more than 1,300 transplants, our dedicated clinical team of board-certified physicians, advanced practice providers, transplant coordinators and nurses has the experience to handle all aspects of this complicated process. We provide comprehensive, quality care to every patient, no matter the donor, transplant or therapy type.

Our blood and marrow transplant and cellular therapy program is a partnership of the MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Wisconsin, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Versiti Blood Research Institute and Froedtert Hospital. These institutions are accredited together as a single blood and marrow transplant and cellular therapy program, working closely and sharing resources. These high-profile partnerships give our patients access to a wide range of perspectives—and decades of experience—to draw on if cases present challenges or complications.

Our program can perform the full range of blood and marrow transplant and cellular therapy options to treat patients with a variety of cancers and blood disorders. We can perform pediatric and young adult transplants, collections and other advanced cellular therapy options. Our team is internationally recognized for its expertise in autologous and allogeneic transplants, we were one of the first institutions to be accredited as an immune effector cellular therapy program, and we are immensely proud to have one of the 10-best 1-year survival rates of pediatric bone marrow transplants in the United States. We also offer cellular therapy treatments—both commercial and clinical trial treatments.

Our proximity to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research gives many of our physicians the unique opportunity to perform treatment-advancing research there. Through our basic science program, we study graft-versus-host disease, a rare but serious potential transplant side effect in which donor cells attack the recipient, and graft-versus-leukemia effect, when the patient experiences a lower incidence of leukemia relapse post-transplant. We also study the process of rebuilding the immune system after transplant. These studies and trials lead to practical advances in cellular therapy.

Our team is available around the clock to handle all care coordination and treatment—from the first phone call to post-transplant and beyond. We walk patients and families through every step of the process, so they understand their child’s condition and treatment options. We also work closely with the Next Steps Survivorship Program to help our transplant and therapy patients go on to lead healthy and productive lives.