Treatment and Clinical Trials
Even as research continues on stem cells in U-M’s laboratories, some patients and research volunteers at the U-M Health System already receive stem cell-related therapies.
Stem cell transplants: A lifesaving cancer treatment
Every year, more than 200 children and adults receive transplants of stem cells at U-M’s nationally known Blood and Marrow Transplant program. Most of them have leukemia, lymphoma or other cancers.
Since December 2011, this care has had a new home: a state-of-the-art inpatient and outpatient floor within the building that also houses the new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital.
These transplants of stem cells taken from the bone marrow or blood of the patient or a donor can save the life of a child or adult.
To learn more about U-M’s program, visit this page.
To find out how you can donate your own marrow or blood stem cells to help a patient at U-M or one of the nation’s other stem cell treatment sites, visit the National Marrow Donor Program’s “Be the Match” site.
Developing tomorrow’s treatments
When an idea is ready to make the jump from the research laboratory to the clinic or hospital, it’s time to do a clinical trial. These tightly controlled tests allow patients to be our partners in developing new treatments and tests.
Many clinical trials at U-M have studied new options for blood and marrow stem cell transplant patients. Some of these studies have led to important new discoveries about how best to treat patients with leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma worldwide. You can learn more about this research here.
Today, our researchers are starting to explore ways to use another kind of stem cell knowledge in fighting other diseases.
Our years of laboratory research on cancer stem cells—the small number of cells that drive tumor growth and spread, and that are resistant to current treatments—are now being translated into clinical trials to see how these cells can be stopped. The first trials are now under way.
Tomorrow, even more trials for other diseases could be available, as our laboratory research into other types of stem cells progresses.
To see a list of U-M stem cell trials that are currently seeking participants, visit www.umclinicalstudies.org and enter “stem cells” into the search box at the top of the page.
To learn more about how we protect the health and safety of people who take part in all types of clinical trials at U-M, visit this page.