ST. LOUIS — The Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program at St. Louis University Hospital is set to perform its 100th transplant of 2020, the first time the program has reached the milestone in two decades.
The BMT program is sitting at 99 transplants for the year, and three transplants scheduled for Thursday will push it over the edge, SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital said in a press release. The BMT is also celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
One of those transplant recipients is Jan Johnson, 62, of Joplin. Johnson is currently receiving chemotherapy treatments for leukemia, which she has been battling for 12 years. She relapsed in March and doctors discovered rare sarcomas along her spine, requiring her to need a stem cell transplant. It would be her second transplant since she was diagnosed, the hospital said.
"She has been waiting to receive her transplant since June of this year and is very excited to finally receive this life-saving treatment to cap what has otherwise been a not-so-great year," the press release said.
The BMT Program opened St. Louis' only Center for Outpatient Blood and Marrow Transplantation in 2012, a joint effort with SLUCare Physician Group. According to the hospital, it's the only center in the region where blood and marrow transplant recipients can be treated during the day and go home at night, as long as they stay within 30 minutes of the center.
Since then, the number of transplants the program has performed has grown exponentially, the press release said. Here's how many transplants the program has performed every year since 2002:
- 2002: 15
- 2003: 39
- 2004: 38
- 2005: 36
- 2006: 29
- 2007: 22
- 2008: 18
- 2009: 21
- 2010: 21
- 2011: 28
- 2012: 24
- 2013: 33
- 2014: 51
- 2015: 44
- 2016: 62
- 2017: 71
- 2018: 69
- 2019: 85
- 2020: 100+ (anticipated)
To learn how to become a donor, visit bethematch.org.
