Providing the Best Effort
When your transplant physician recommends a stem cell transplant to you, that recommendation says that not only is this treatment your best chance for long-term survival, but that our entire Blood and Marrow Transplant team is committed to making the transplant work for you.
By the same token, our recommendation is a statement that we think you can make it; that not only is your disease potentially curable, but that psychologically, mentally, spiritually, you have the "right stuff" to make it, even when the going gets tough. We regard the agreement to proceed with a stem cell transplant as a mutual covenant between the patient and the team to provide the very best effort at all times to give the best chance for success.
Improving Standard Therapies
While the general concepts involved in stem cell transplantation are well-known, there are many questions for which the best answer is still being sought. The Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is committed to delivering the best possible treatment and care. The program is also committed to the study and discovery of better treatment strategies where they are needed.
For that reason, one or more experimental or study protocols may be presented to you. Each of these protocols has been reviewed and approved by an independent group composed of lay people, clergy, lawyers, and teachers, as well as physicians. This group is called the Institutional Review Board (IRB) on Human Experimentation and exists for the protection of patients undergoing new treatments. In each case where you may be offered the chance to participate in a study, the general concept is that we are testing a promising new therapy by comparing it to a current standard therapy that we feel can and should be improved.