(pictured: Ms Lucy Hoo, Dr Angus Henderson, Dr Danielle Oh and Ms Emma McCalman on the day of the Healthy Donor Apheresis run)
From early 2023, the newly established Cellular Therapies Service at Monash Health will offer autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) to our patients.
Autologous transplants are used to treat a number of different blood cancers.
Dr Danielle Oh, Haematologist and Clinical Lead for Cellular Therapies, explained the importance of the new service.
“This is a fantastic development that allows Monash Health to provide our patients with transplant service, without referring them to other hospitals.”
In collaboration with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the team has been working tirelessly to establish the Cellular Therapies Service, starting with stem cell collection in the Medical Infusion Unit, CD34 testing by the flow cytometry laboratory at Monash Pathology and ending with a stem cell re-infusion procedure in Ward 44.
In preparation for accreditation, our apheresis-trained nurses Lucy Hoo and Emma McCalman successfully carried out stem cell collection from three healthy volunteers, Dr Angus Henderson, General Manager of Research Strategy; Dr Trung Ngoc, Haematology registrar; and Dr Susan Brown, Consultant Haematologist.
(pictured: Healthy Donor Apheresis run with Dr Trung Ngoc)
A team of accreditors from the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) visited Monash Health on 15 November and gave provisional accreditation for the ASCT service to start treating patients.
With the Cell Therapy Service now established, Monash Health is registered as a globally recognised transplant centre with its unique Facility Identification Number. This is an exciting milestone for the overall provision of Cancer Services at Monash Health.
“It aligns with our value of providing a patient-centred care approach,” explained Dr Oh. “Now our patients no longer need to travel to other hospitals to receive this standard of care treatment.”
“Providing this service will also allow us to further explore the use of other state-of-the-art novel therapies, such as chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cells.”
We especially thank the extended team involved in setting up this service, our healthy volunteers and our executives who have supported this ambitious initiative.
Approved by Anjali Dhulia