Local News in Brief : Marrow Transplant Hospital Expanded
The City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte has expanded its 11-bed bone marrow transplant hospital to 30 beds, making it the second-largest free-standing facility in the country, hospital spokeswoman Lucie Lowery said Friday.
The largest free-standing facility is in Seattle.
Bone marrow transplants have become more successful and their uses increased since City of Hope began its use of the procedure in 1976, Lowery said. In the past, only leukemia patients underwent the transplant. Now the treatment is being used against certain breast cancers and other illnesses.
In the transplant, marrow is removed from a donor and given to a patient in a method similar to a blood transfusion, Lowery said. The transplanted marrow “reconstitutes” the patient’s immune system, she said.
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