Medical Services

What is a stem cell? Stem cells live throughout your body. They create all the types of cells your body needs.

We find blood-forming stem cells in three places:

• Bone marrow
• Blood 
• Umbilical cords

The stem cells living in your bone marrow create blood. They make red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

Sometimes, stem cells leave the bone marrow and end up in your bloodstream, called peripheral blood stem cells.

Donating stem cells saves lives. Whether you’re donating for a loved one or a stranger, your gift has the chance to create a huge impact for someone living with leukemia or other cancer.

Ways to Donate Stem Cells

You can donate your stem cells:

What is a bone marrow transplant?

A bone marrow transplant (BMT) or stem cell transplant can replace damaged bone marrow cells with healthy, noncancerous cells.

Where do you get healthy stem cells?

Healthy stem cells come from:

During a bone marrow transplant procedure, donor stem cells get put into your body. These healthy stem cells will begin creating new blood cells.  

This procedure - a stem cell transplant - takes less than a day. But preparing and recovering from a bone marrow transplant involves several steps.

The First Step of Bone Marrow Transplant

This new patient evaluation could take a few hours. We'll have to find out if you qualify for the procedure. We also need to decide what type of transplant makes sense for you.

You’ll meet with several people, including:

Bone marrow transplant recovery begins at the hospital. After you return home, you'll still need to take care of yourself in order to avoid infection and watch for other complications.

Bone Marrow Transplant Recovery at the Hospital

While you recover at the hospital, you might need:

If you think, or know, you have ovarian cancer, you're understandably worried about your future. Ovarian cancer often goes undetected for years. Yes, this makes it a tough cancer to treat.

But we have tougher treatments for all ovarian cancer stages and types. Even women facing ovarian cancer at an advanced stage are living longer and with a high quality of life.

No one wants to have a hysterectomy. But a hysterectomy can be a vital part of cancer treatment. And our surgeons have the experience you'll need when facing a gynecologic cancer like endometrial (uterine) or cervical. They're experts in all types of hysterectomy for cancer.

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells by preventing them from growing and dividing. But because healthy cells also create new cells, chemotherapy can harm them, too. This is what causes many of the side effects to chemotherapy treatment.

What Can Chemotherapy Do?

Chemotherapy can treat many different cancers. It can work in your body to:

• Cure your cancer
• Control the growth and spread of the cancer
• Bring relief to cancer symptoms

We use chemotherapy:

Biologic therapies use your body’s own power to treat cancer. These therapies use your body's immune system to get rid of cancer or to lessen treatment side effects. Sometimes they even kickstart your immune system.

We turn to biologic therapies when other treatments don’t work. These therapies also work on tumor types we know your immune system can destroy.

What Do Biologic Therapies Do?

Biologic therapies improve your body’s response to cancer in a number of ways. They can: