Marrow and Cord Blood Database Provides Information Worldwide

The Medical College of Wisconsin announced that the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) has been awarded the Stem Cell Therapeutic Outcomes Database contract by the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The CIBMTR is a research partnership formed through an affiliation of the College's International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry and the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). The NMDP Network includes more than 150 transplant centers and 90 donor centers.

As part of the application process for the contract, the CIBMTR worked closely with many leaders in the field, including the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Center Will Collect and Maintain Data
Under HRSA's C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program, enacted by Congress in 2005, the CIBMTR will collect and maintain a standardized database of allogeneic (related and unrelated donor) marrow and cord blood transplants performed in the United States; the program now requires that all US transplant centers performing these transplants provide patient outcomes data to this new national Stem Cell Therapeutic Outcomes Database.

The database will contain critical information to continually evaluate the program's operations and the status of transplant recipients. "The Outcomes Database will provide physicians, scientists, policy makers and patients with the information they need to make the best possible clinical decisions and to advance the field," said Mary Horowitz, MD, chief scientific director of the CIBMTR and the Robert A. Uihlein Professor of Hematologic Research at the Medical College.

"The goal is to make blood and marrow transplants available to all who need them and to increase their safety and effectiveness." Dr. Horowitz provides care at the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Neoplastic Diseases and Related Disorders Clinic.

Information Available Worldwide
Since 1972, the CIBMTR has collected retrospective outcomes data provided voluntarily by transplant centers worldwide on both allogeneic and autologous (patient's own cells) hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HCT). Hematopoietic stem cells are the cells responsible for continual regeneration of circulating blood cells throughout life; they are not embryonic stem cells.

The CIBMTR has made this data available to investigators and physicians worldwide. In the past year alone, the CIBMTR has published more than 20 papers, is conducting more than 150 observational studies and has helped to coordinate eight national clinical trials in HCT.

In addition to the Stem Cell Therapeutic Outcomes Database, HRSA recently awarded other C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program contracts to the NMDP in order to continue and expand the NMDP's work as a single point of access for transplant patients. The NMDP will continue to serve as the Bone Marrow Coordinating Center and the Office of Patient Advocacy, and will become the nation's new Cord Blood Coordinating Center.

US Congressman C.W. Bill Young, an internationally recognized leader in increasing support and funding for biomedical research, was instrumental in founding a national marrow donor registry that could provide potentially life-saving treatment for those diagnosed with leukemia and other blood diseases. The Congressman and his wife became aware of the need for marrow transplantation while helping a child from their district.

Young initiated the marrow donation effort with $2 million appropriated to the US Navy's marrow transplantation research program. From 1999 to 2005, Young served as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, during which time he successfully led the effort in Congress to double federal medical research funding over five years for a variety of needs, including blood diseases.

The Medical College is home to ten national research centers and is recognized as a world leader in research in many areas including heart disease, genetics, obesity, medical imaging and bone marrow transplantation. The Medical College's 900-plus faculty physicians provide care to more than 260,000 patients annually.

MCW Health News presents up-to-date information on patient care and medical research by the physicians of the Medical College of Wisconsin.