Dr. Stephen J. Noga, Director of the Johns Hopkins Graft Engineering Laboratory, envisions a day when they may be able to specifically formulate a purified marrow product which will be tailored to each patient's needs to reduce the complications of transplant and the recurrence of disease. For MM patients who are not candidates for allogeneic transplants, another treatment option offered at Johns Hopkins is peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, which can be performed on patients up to age 70. Inpatient Services Available Patients with MM may receive their initial cancer therapy to reduce the amount of myeloma cells prior to transplant either as an outpatient or if indicated on a 21 bed unit specialized for the aggressive treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies. The nursing staff is highly trained in the care of leukemic patients and in critical care. The unit is capable of providing conventional and intensive care.
All rooms are private with special air-filtering to decrease the risk of infections.
Patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation are hospitalized on a separate specialty unit or are treated in our new IPOP unit . For MM patients undergoing a peripheral stem cell transplant, a vaccine study will be opening this fall. This study requires that patients be seen here before beginning any therapy in order to obtain sufficient tum or cells to make the vaccine. Each vaccine will be unique to the patient. After these cells are collected, the patient will receive standard chemotherapy.