By David Prentice

Editor’s note. This appears on Dr. Prentice’s blog at http://www.frcblog.com/2011/01/city-of-hope-does-10000th-adult-stem-cell-transplant/

Adult stem cells continue to improve health and save lives around the world. One of the pioneering sites, City of Hope in Duarte, California, has now done its 10,000th adult stem cell transplant. It is one of the first transplant sites in the world to reach this milestone. The 10,000th transplant was for a patient with advanced leukemia, who received stem cells from an unrelated volunteer donor who was a compatible match.

City of Hope currently performs nearly 500 adult stem cell transplant procedures each year, and has helped the method evolve into a gold standard treatment for several diseases. Over 50,000 adult stem cell transplants are done each year around the globe, with approximately 57% using the patient’s own adult stem cells, and 43% using donor adult stem cells.

Adult stem cell transplants are also moving beyond cancer treatments to published success treating patients for spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, heart damage, and many other conditions. Adult stem cells save lives now (see http://www.stemcellresearchfacts.org).