Stem Cell Transplant Unit (SCT)

The BMT Unit located on the eighth floor of the medical complex includes 8 positive pressures and High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtered rooms. Patients are admitted to the BMT Unit for stem cells transplantation, stem cells collection, and treatment of underlying complications  after a transplant.

Providing the highest quality care standards, we have been able to cover for a continuously increasing number of stem cells transplants that has been observed across the past few years with the successful completion of more than 100 BMT patients on average every year.

Dedicated BMT Clinics

• The flow of patients follows a patient-centered model where all concerned health professionals are involved in care: Applying a one stop service setup to provide all needed services at the same point of care.
• A centralized phlebotomy lab and oncology pharmacy are dedicated for our patients to ensure service excellence at all levels .
• Consultation services and medical care are available to patients for different types of benign and malignant hematological diseases to provide the following:

• Autologous Transplantation and Allogeneic Transplantation encompassing the range of necessary laboratory medicine workup needed to perform a BMT procedure as well as molecular and genetics testing, listed below in Pathology and Blood Bank services.

Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine department – Division of Hematology – Oncology

The Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at AUBMC provides evidence-based medical care to more than 5000 children and adolescents per year from birth till age 21.

Inpatient services benifitting BMT patients include: General Pediatrics (29 beds located on 6North), the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Step Down Unit (12 beds), the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon (16 beds, building 56, 4th floor), and the BMT unit (8 beds), and the outpatient Ambulatory Hematology Oncology Infusion center (9 beds), the Hematology Oncology clincs (5 clinics) and dedicated BMT clinics (2 clinics) and the Pediatric Emergency Services.

Ambulatory Hematology Oncology Outpatient Center

The center is composed of hematology oncology clinics and ambulatory treatment center with 11 clinics and a 43 infusion beds facility.

The outpatient facility, located on the fifth  floor  of the ACC Building at AUBMC, can accommodate patients for chemotherapy, physical examinations, procedures, IV antibiotics, blood transfusions, and blood studies. Procedures such as bone marrow aspirates and biopsies are performed in the outpatient unit under conscious sedation. Moreover, patients are prepared in the outpatient area and referred for radiotherapy or for sophisticated laboratory and other studies such as MRI that require central device access and general anesthesia.

Inpatient Unit (IU)

The inpatient facility is a multidisciplinary care unit located on the eighth floor of the medical complex and includes 32 patient beds. Patients are admitted to the inpatient facility for chemotherapy, procedures, investigation and management, and for treatment of underlying complications.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Blood Bank Services

The Donor Room and Apheresis Facility

Provides blood collection, component therapy, processing, preparation, filtration, irradiation, storage, and release; including the following services:

• Whole Blood Collection
• Off-premises Blood Drives
• Collection Apheresis
• Plateletpheresis
• Granulocyte Collection
• Therapeutic Apheresis & Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Collection
• Therapeutic Plateletpheresis
• ​Therapeutic Plasmapheresis
• Therapeutic Leukapheresis
• ​Therapeutic Red Cell exchange
• Peripheral Blood Stem Cell collection
• Autologous Peripheral Blood Stem Cell collection
• ​Allogeneic Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Collection
• Extracorporeal electrophoresis

The Stem Cell Processing Laboratory

• Stem cell Processing, Cryopreservation, and Storage in liquid Nitrogen
• Thawing and Release of the Stem Cell Collect
• Bone Marrow Harvest
• Bone Marrow Harvest Processing and Release​

Tissue Bank and Storage:

Stores harvested living donor (autologous and allogeneic) and cadaveric donor bone and tissue. These are stored at -80 C for future transplants.

Medical Genetics Services

The Medical Genetics Laboratory performs karyotyping, molecular Karyotyping, and DNA analyses on a variety of samples, which include the following:

• Chromosome analysis
• Constitutional on blood lymphocytes skin fibroblasts, amniotic fluid, chorionic villi, fetal blood, and products of conception​
• ​Acquired on blood, bone marrow, lymph nodes, and solid tumors
• Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH) for the detection of major chromosome rearrangements in hematological disorders and solid tumors as well as detection of constitutional microdeletions.
• Targeted microarray analyses: for the detection of addition or loss of chromosome regions associated with known syndromes.
• DNA analyses for Genes involved in inherited familial cancers such as breast, ovarian, and colon cancers.
• DNA analyses for Genes involved in inherited disorders.
• Preimplantation genetic diagnosis for monogenic disorders.

Molecular Diagnosis Lab:

• Histocompatibility testing.
• Molecular testing for Factor V Leiden, Prothrombin gene (Factor II) mutation, and Methylene Tetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) gene mutation.
• Cell processing and preservation​.
• DNA extraction.
• RNA extraction​.
• Leukemia testing: NGS Leukemia profiling, PCR for genetic aberrations, ….

The type of bone marrow donation determines the type of transplantation:

• Autologous Transplantation: The patient donates her/his own peripheral stem cells (or sometimes bone marrow) prior to treatment for re-infusion later.
• Allogeneic Transplantation: The person giving the bone marrow or stem cells is a family member or a volunteer donor:a. Matched related : The person donating marrow is related to the patient with a full matched HLA, usually a brother or sisterb. Matched Unrelated Allogeneic Transplantation (MUD): The person donating marrow is unrelated to the patient. Chances of finding an unrelated compatible donor from the general population depends on the uniqueness of tissue type

  c. Haplo Identical Transplantation: The person donating marrow is related to the patient with a half matched HLA (Father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter)

  d. Syngeneic Transplantation: The person donating the bone marrow or stem cells is an identical twin.

When the patient is diagnosed to have leukemia, aplastic anemia, and some lymphomas, it becomes crucial to replace the unhealthy marrow with a healthy one. Allogeneic, unrelated, and syngeneic bone marrow transplantations (BMT’s) are most commonly used in persons with those diseases. While in lymphomas and multiple myeloma, an autologous BMT is usually done.

 

Steps involved in undergoing autologous BMT are illustrated below to better understand what treatment is involved:

 

There are generally three steps in undergoing any BMT:

• Receiving chemotherapy to reduce any cancer cells in the body to a minimum
• Collection and storage of bone marrow cells
• Transplantation involving high doses of chemotherapy with or without radiation, re-infusing the stem cells and then, waiting for the bone marrow function to return

The patient and family guide below provides you and your family with information about bone marrow transplant (before, during, and after). The information presented will help you make the appropriate decisions and take better care of yourself. The guide does not replace any discussion you might hold with your doctor. Feel free to share with the Bone Marrow Transplant program all your questions and concerns.

You can also refer to the dedicated BMT program patient information resources page.

The Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) Program, utilizing front-line diagnostic equipment to identify each patient’s unique needs and provides the highest quality of care by a team of nurses specially trained in BMT services, is supported by many AUBMC departments and programs that aim to provide exemplary care for cancer patients:

• The Department of Pediatrics​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ The mission of the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine is to consistently maintain a leadership role in providing excellent, accessible and comprehensive health services to the children and adolescents of Lebanon and the region, while thriving in our tradition as a distinguished academic department.

• The Department of Surgery maintains through its several divisions (Cardiothoracic, General, Neuro, Orthopedic, Plastic, Urology, and Vascular Surgery) an active clinical profile encompassing a wide spectrum of adult and pediatric procedures. For further information or inquiries, please visit the Department website by clicking the following link: The Department of Surgery

• The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PLM) provides critical clinical laboratory services in Surgical Pathology, Cytopathology, Neuropathology, Blood Bank, Clinical Chemistry, Clinical Hematology, Clinical Microbiology (Bacteriology, Parasitology, & Serology), Cytogenetics, and Molecular Diagnostics. For more information or inquiries, please visit the Department website by clicking the following link: The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PLM)

• The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology provides comprehensive management of all treatments for gynecologic cancers, as well as a wide range of the most advanced gynecologic surgery for endometrial, cervical, ovarian, and vulvar cancers. An Oncofertility Program has been jointly inititiated to adress patient’s reproductive concerns at the department’s Haifa Idriss Fertility Unit. The department also provides sexual health care for both men and women through its Women Integrated Sexual Health Program at the Women’s Health Center. For further information or inquiries, please visit the Department website by clicking the following link: Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and the Women Integrated Sexual Health Program.

• The Department of Psychiatry and the Naef K. Basile Institute have jointly established the Psycho-Oncology Program, the first integrative collaborative care psycho-oncology program in Lebanon and the region. The program aims to support cancer patients and their families, help them better manage their disease and its progression, improve their quality of life, clinical outcomes and advocate throughout their cancer journey. For further information or inquiries, please visit the Department website by clicking the following link: Psycho-Oncology Program.

SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT SERVICES:

The BMT program benefits from social work department services dedicated to:

• Provide the necessary support and assistance to the patient in the medical and psychiatric setting in the spirit of the Service of Excellence.
• Help families adjust to social, psychological, and economic problems resulting from patients’ illness especially during crisis.

All patients presenting to AUBMC can request the support of the Social Services Department, which serves as a link between the patient, community organizations, and other AUBMC staff, for evaluation and assistance.

The Social Services Department is comprised of eligible individuals specialized in assisting patients with a range of social, emotional, family, and health-related problems.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOUNDATIONS:

• The Cancer Support Fund (CSF): is a charitable initiative at the NKBCI. To ensure patients can have equal opportunities to receive appropriate healthcare services, it offers financial, emotional and psychosocial support to financially disadvantaged adult cancer patients.

The CSF provides adult cancer patients with financial support as assessed by the AUBMC Social Services Department with no discrimination based on gender or religion.

PATIENT SUPPORT INITIATIVES:

Patient activities at NKBCI started with individual efforts from cancer survivors treated at the institute. Setting up support groups to help those affected overcome the challenges of diagnosis and inspire hope is also one of the services that NKBCI also promotes through:

• Ties: Is a volunteer lead initiative whose purpose is to support patients during hospitalization and alleviate the burden of disease through different occupational and recreational activities such as live music rounds, arts and crafts, relaxation exercises and others like storytelling. For more information please visit the following link: Ties

Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm as per the following schedule

Ali Bazarbachi, MD

Mon   2:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Wed   2:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Miguel Abboud, MD

Tue  9:00am – 5:00pm

Thu  10.30am – 5:00pm

Jean El Cheikh, MD

Tue   1:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Thu   1:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Dolly Noun, MD

Mon   8:00 am – 4:00 pm

Iman Abou Dalle, MD

Tue   10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Fri     1:30 pm –  4:00 pm

Nour Moukalled, MD

Tue    2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Fri     10:00 am – 4:00 pm

To schedule an appointment, please refer to the numbers listed below:

BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION PROGRAM

BMT unit coordinator  01 – 350000 ext. 7106

BMT case manager 01-350000 ext. 7714

AUBMC, Phase II, 8th floor

EMAIL US: bmtu@aub.edu.lb

BMT program service units contact numbers:

• Adult Oncology Clinics – Tel: 01-374444 Ext: 8656/8657 – 5th floor, Halim and Aida Daniel Academic and Clinical Center, ACC Building.
• Pediatric Oncology Clinics-  Ext: 7858/8107 – Ground floor, Building 56, AUBMC
• Adult Ambulatory Hematology Oncology Infusion Center –  Ext: 7621/2/3/4 – 5th floor, Halim and Aida Daniel Academic and Clinical Center, ACC Building.
• Pediatric Ambulatory Hematology Oncology Infusion Center – Ext: 8109 – Ground floor, Building 56, AUBMC
• Adult Inpatient Unit –  Ext: 6281 – 8th floor, AUBMC Phase II
• Pediatric Inpatient Unit  –  Ext 7640/7645 – 4th floor, Building 56, AUBMC
• Stem Cell Transplant Unit –  Ext: 7090/1 – 8th Floor, AUBMC Phase II

BMT program administration:
Telephone: 00961 – 1 – 350 000 ext. 7903

For International Patients​ Visit the following link​.

BMT Program Unit Location
AUBMC, Phase II, 8th floor