Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Program

• Our program was the first free-standing pediatric institution to be accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). We have continued to maintain this accreditation in the areas of pediatric autologous transplant, allogeneic transplant, marrow collection and peripheral blood by apheresis collection since 1999.
• Our Ambulatory Infusion Center provides comprehensive outpatient treatment, including family-friendly hours, to hematology, oncology and stem cell transplant patients.
• We offer our patients access to in-house protocols and national studies.
• Hospital-wide collaboration means that newborns identified with immune deficiencies in the Newborn Screening Center are quickly referred to and treated by immunologists and stem cell transplant specialists.
• We are a member of the Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium (PIDTC), a group of 13 major centers in North America collaborating to improve the outcome of patients with rare, life threatening, inherited disorders of the immune system.

During a pediatric stem cell transplant, a patient's diseased or damaged bone marrow is replaced with healthy blood stem cells. Patients first receive chemotherapy and/or radiation to eliminate diseased cells and make space in the bone marrow. The stem cells are then infused and make their way to the space in the bone marrow, and start producing healthy blood cells.

All children referred for a stem cell transplant at Lurie Children's have a multidisciplinary team to support them before and after transplant. Patients and their families benefit from this tight team approach, which combines highly-specialized training and clinical expertise of all stem cell transplant specialists. The goal of this team approach is to provide consistent, expert care from the point of referral to the completion of the transplant. 

Whether you anticipate your child needing an organ transplant in the future, interested in multiple listing for organ transplant, or would like a second opinion on post-transplant care, the transplant remote consultation and second opinion program can help. 

Via telemedicine, our transplant providers are available for an initial consultation to review your care, explain our transplant process, and provide second opinions of post transplant care treatment plans before deciding if traveling to Lurie Children’s would be the right choice for you.

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Our team is committed to clinical and transitional research with the goal of advancing the field of hematopoietic cell transplantation through collaborative multidisciplinary research.

Learn More About Our Research

At Lurie Children’s, we are committed to making sure our patients and their families receive mental, emotional and spiritual support. Stem cell transplant patients and their families have access to support services and internal resources:

• The Family Services team addresses the needs of the whole family for the best possible patient experience. Team members include child life specialists, social workers, art therapists, and chaplains.
• The Division of Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant has a staff neuropsychologist to support mental health.
• We offer survivor services with the Survivors Taking Action and Responsibility (STAR) Program. The program provides risk-based care using national and international survivorship guidelines for childhood cancer and stem cell transplant survivors.
• The Palliative Care Program assists families and their children with pain and symptom management, care coordination, and help in making decisions about treatment options.

You can help a young patient by donating blood or bone marrow.

Register to be a donor