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UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

Location

UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
One Children's Hospital Drive
4401 Penn Avenue
Plaza Building 5th Floor BMT & CT
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Direct phone: (412) 692-5942

Total transplants by cell source

From January 1, 2020 to December 31st, 2021
  • Marrow: 15
  • PBSC: 16
  • Cord Blood: 17
  • Autologous (PBSC or Marrow): 29
Performs pediatric transplants

Overview

The CHP Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapies Program has a dedicated team of clinicians, researchers and support staff with a state of the art Stem Cell Lab and GMP Facility. We utilize cord blood, peripheral blood and bone marrow with special processing methods to reduce severe graft-versus-host disease. We perform over 40 autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplants yearly for pediatric as well as select adult patients enrolled on institutional clinical trials. The inpatient unit consists of 16 Hepa filtered beds and an isolation playroom. The newly renovated outpatient clinic is fully equipped with family centered playrooms, private clinic rooms and an on-site laboratory. We take pride in providing leading transplant care with our overall survival rate above the national average.

This center has been performing allogeneic transplants since 1991 and has been an NMDP/Be The Match transplant center since January 1992.

Attending physicians

Adult - Jessie Barnum, Craig Byersdorfer, Pauline Horvei, Vanisha Patel, Paul Szabolcs, Randy Windreich

Pediatric - Jessie Barnum, Craig Byersdorfer, Pauline Horvei, Vanisha Patel, Paul Szabolcs, Randy Windreich

Transplants performed

Marrow/PBSC, single cord, and double cord

Cord blood transplants performed on

Pediatric only

Other programs and services

Child Life: A Masters-prepared Child Life Specialist is assigned to each transplant unit to work with children pre- and post-transplant to help them understand their transplant and cope with lengthy hospitalizations. Following discharge, the Child Life Department is often able to provide free passes to families for local activities such as museums, Pittsburgh Zoo and baseball games. This helps the child to return to family and community activities and helps encourage parents to increase activity as their child recuperates.

School: School-age children are referred for tutoring as soon as possible. This is organized through the Allegheny County Public School system. Older children meet in a classroom within CHP. Younger children or those who cannot leave their room have bedside instruction. Assignments from the home school are used, when possible, to try and keep the child with his class. Tutoring is also provided at the Ronald McDonald House or Family House.

Occupational/Speech/Physical Therapies: The Transplant Department implements these services as soon as possible and continues them outpatient until the family returns home. This supports patients during transplant and helps recover their potential post-transplant. Specialized therapy is available to those with developmental delays, oral aversion and speech problems.

Social Service: A social worker completes an assessment of patient and family functioning and provides psychosocial care and support for transplant candidates and families. The family is guided to financial assistance programs and support groups. Families are advised about fundraising and applying for assistance to support expenses related to a local residence, childcare and travel expenses. Pastoral care is available.

Local Residence: Families must often stay in the Pittsburgh area for some time depending on the type of transplant and complications. There is a Ronald McDonald House on the CHP campus and a Family House nearby. Housing is arranged through Social Work.

About the center

Overview

The CHP Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapies Program has a dedicated team of clinicians, researchers and support staff with a state of the art Stem Cell Lab and GMP Facility. We utilize cord blood, peripheral blood and bone marrow with special processing methods to reduce severe graft-versus-host disease. We perform over 40 autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplants yearly for pediatric as well as select adult patients enrolled on institutional clinical trials. The inpatient unit consists of 16 Hepa filtered beds and an isolation playroom. The newly renovated outpatient clinic is fully equipped with family centered playrooms, private clinic rooms and an on-site laboratory. We take pride in providing leading transplant care with our overall survival rate above the national average.

This center has been performing allogeneic transplants since 1991 and has been an NMDP/Be The Match transplant center since January 1992.

Attending physicians

Adult - Jessie Barnum, Craig Byersdorfer, Pauline Horvei, Vanisha Patel, Paul Szabolcs, Randy Windreich

Pediatric - Jessie Barnum, Craig Byersdorfer, Pauline Horvei, Vanisha Patel, Paul Szabolcs, Randy Windreich

Transplants performed

Marrow/PBSC, single cord, and double cord

Cord blood transplants performed on

Pediatric only

Other programs and services

Child Life: A Masters-prepared Child Life Specialist is assigned to each transplant unit to work with children pre- and post-transplant to help them understand their transplant and cope with lengthy hospitalizations. Following discharge, the Child Life Department is often able to provide free passes to families for local activities such as museums, Pittsburgh Zoo and baseball games. This helps the child to return to family and community activities and helps encourage parents to increase activity as their child recuperates.

School: School-age children are referred for tutoring as soon as possible. This is organized through the Allegheny County Public School system. Older children meet in a classroom within CHP. Younger children or those who cannot leave their room have bedside instruction. Assignments from the home school are used, when possible, to try and keep the child with his class. Tutoring is also provided at the Ronald McDonald House or Family House.

Occupational/Speech/Physical Therapies: The Transplant Department implements these services as soon as possible and continues them outpatient until the family returns home. This supports patients during transplant and helps recover their potential post-transplant. Specialized therapy is available to those with developmental delays, oral aversion and speech problems.

Social Service: A social worker completes an assessment of patient and family functioning and provides psychosocial care and support for transplant candidates and families. The family is guided to financial assistance programs and support groups. Families are advised about fundraising and applying for assistance to support expenses related to a local residence, childcare and travel expenses. Pastoral care is available.

Local Residence: Families must often stay in the Pittsburgh area for some time depending on the type of transplant and complications. There is a Ronald McDonald House on the CHP campus and a Family House nearby. Housing is arranged through Social Work.

Overall center survival


Patient survival information for this center

This center's actual 1-year survival results are similar to the expected rate for this center.

The survival information we have for this center includes ONLY:

  1. Patients who had their FIRST ALLOGENEIC transplant (cells from a related or unrelated donor/cord blood) during 2018, 2019, 2020, and
  2. Who had their transplant at a U.S. transplant center, and
  3. Who had follow-up information provided by the transplant center for analysis

For this center, we have survival information for 71 patients.

The actual 1-year survival of these patients is 90.0%.

Compared to similar patients transplanted at all centers in the U.S., we expect that the 1-year survival for patients at this center to be in a range between 78.1% and 93.6%.

For help with understanding these statistics, please see Understanding Transplant Outcomes.

For overall survival for all patients transplanted with a specific disease, please see U.S. Patient Survival report at bloodcell.transplant.hrsa.gov.

Total transplants

Total transplants


77

Transplants reported (From January 1, 2020 to December 31st, 2021 as reported by the centers)

Marrow PBSC Cord blood Total
Allogeneic
Related donor 5 0 0 5
Unrelated donor 10 16 17 43
Total allogeneic 15 16 17 48
Autologous
Both marrow & PBSC
29		 -- 29
Total combined
60 17 77

Transplants by disease

All diseases

Number of transplants by age reported from January 1, 2020 to December 31st, 2021 (includes marrow, PBSC and cord blood)

0-18 19-44 45-64 65+ Total
Related 5 0 0 0 5
Unrelated 35 7 1 0 43
Autologous 28 1 0 0 29
Total 68 8 1 0 77

Treatments may be similar for diseases within a group. It might be helpful to look at centers that have done transplants for a specific disease and centers that have done transplants for any corresponding broad disease categories.

Centers are not required to report autologous transplants so the numbers might be incomplete.

More information about transplants for this disease can be found:

Additional information

Transplant center resources

Transplant center coordinator:
Heather Stanczak
(412) 692-5942
Email: heather.stanczak@chp.edu

Financial representative:
Kristen Horvath
(412) 692-6067
Email: kristen.horvath@chp.edu

Be The Match patient navigators

Patient navigators can answer your questions about choosing a transplant center and provide support and education to help you throughout your transplant journey.

Inside the United States: 1 (888) 999-6743

Outside the United States: 1 (763) 406-3410.
(Long distance or international charges may apply.)

Email: patientinfo@nmdp.org

More resources

Survivorship program

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