South Jersey residents used to have to travel into Philadelphia or central Jersey to get specialty medical care. Cooper University Health Care has helped change that.
Just this year, Cooper’s MD Anderson Cancer Center received accreditation from the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) for its Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program. It is South Jersey’s first and only stem-cell transplant program.
“FACT accreditation reflects the highest standards in transplant care,” Dr. Roger Strair, a hematologist and medical oncologist who is director of the program, said. “Today, patients in South Jersey can now receive this fantastic, exceptional care close to home.”
MD Anderson at Cooper was also the first center in the Philadelphia–South Jersey region to offer TIL therapy to patients with advanced melanoma. Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is a modern treatment to combat hard-to-treat solid tumors that uses the body’s own immune cells.
Cooper’s Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program treats patients with complex cancers and blood disorders, including leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. The program also provides access to innovative therapies and clinical trials for patients with melanoma, lung cancer, and head and neck cancers. Stem-cell transplants replace damaged or diseased bone marrow with healthy stem cells capable of restoring normal blood cell production.
In 2013, Cooper partnered with the nation’s leading cancer center, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, to improve cancer care in the South Jersey region. To symbolize its mission to eradicate cancer, the MD Anderson Cancer Center logo has a red line crossing out the word cancer.
