Blood & Marrow Transplant Program

The Ottosen Family Blood and Marrow Treatment program within Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (CCBD) offers:

  • Autologous bone marrow transplant (BMT), which uses the child’s own stem cells
  • Allogeneic BMT, which uses donor stem cells
  • Food and Drug Administration-approved chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. We’re one of a limited number of centers nationally offering this proven treatment.

Our multidisciplinary approach brings together all the specialists and services your child might need, with dedicated physicians, advanced practice practitioners, BMT-registered nurse coordinators, social workers, child life specialists, nutritionists, physical therapists, case managers, researchers, mental health therapists and financial advisors. Our team also offers resources for pre-transplant fertility preservations for our patients.

We offer services and programs that can help your child and family deal with the stress of your child’s illness and treatment. Our services include a team of psychologists, supportive counselors, child life specialists, music therapy and animal-assisted therapy — using trained animals to provide unconditional love and support.

Your Child's Follow-Up Care

Children who have had an autologous stem cell transplant are followed in our CCBD Survivor Clinic.

We also offer three specialty clinics:

  •  Long-Term Follow-up (Survivor) Program, which provides children who have received stem cells with a care plan, annual screening and management of late effects of BMT and other treatments
  • Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD) Clinic, for children who have received an allogeneic transplant (using stem cells from a donor) — the program monitors and treats GVHD, in which donor cells attack the recipient’s tissues
  • Immunohematology Clinic, for children who have immune disorders – the program monitors and treats the needs of patients who have immune disorders both before and after transplant. Some of our patients in the Immunohematology Clinic may not need transplant at all!

Allogeneic BMT Long-Term Follow-Up

At each annual visit, your child and family will meet with:

  • A physician assistant with more than a decade of training in blood and marrow transplant
  • An oncology nurse
  • A registered dietician
  • A social worker
  • A mental health counselor
  • A pulmonologist
  • Our Oncology Survivor director of nephrology and endocrinology as needed

This team provides screening and recommendations based on the Children’s Oncology Group survivorship guidelines and the Center for International Blood & Marrow Research collaborative survivorship recommendations. Each evaluation is tailored to your child’s individual needs to manage any short-term or long-lasting effects from their treatment. Children who have had an autologous transplant are seen for their one-year visit with our BMT team. Our allogeneic transplant patients continue to be seen annually to monitor for late effects typical of this type of transplant.

You and your child’s primary care provider are critical collaborators in your child’s survivorship care. We’ll create a detailed survivorship care plan that will include a review of your child’s exposures, as well as screening, preventive and treatment recommendations, and nutrition and exercise guidelines. We send you and your primary care provider a summary of our recommendations in easy-to-read language.

We’ll also link you with resources that can help you and your child adjust to life after transplant. We can offer support with fertility questions, self-image, quality of life concerns, building independence, success in school, life goals and financial concerns.

Our team participates in national long-term follow-up studies researching the cause and prevention of late effects of bone marrow transplant. If your child qualifies, we’ll talk to you about the benefits and other aspects of participation as studies become available.