The Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Northside Hospital (NH-BMT) provides the best of both worlds—clinical excellence and compassionate care. We are committed to being the premier program in the Southeast, providing exceptional, state-of-the-art care to patients undergoing acute leukemia treatment, CAR T-cell immunotherapy, and blood and marrow stem cell transplantation. New patient brochure
2024 National Leaders in Allogeneic Transplantation
NH-BMT is the ONLY BMT program in the country and the only BMT program in Georgia to have achieved survival outcomes that significantly exceeded the expected survival rate for allogeneic and unrelated donor transplants for the last 16 consecutive reporting cycles (2009–2024) and is one of only 12 national centers (less than 10% of all centers) to over-perform for the current annual reporting cycle.
The Program’s actual one-year survival rate, as reported in the December 2024 Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) final 2024 Transplant Center Specific Survival Report and nmdp.org is 82.6%.*
For additional survival data details, visit bmtga.com/bmt-survival-data.
*Survival information includes only patients who received their first allogeneic transplant between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022, using unrelated or related donors and who had reported follow-up.
Amtagvi (lifileucel) is now available as SECOND line therapy for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma
Northside’s Immunotherapy Program is the ONLY approved TIL treatment center in Georgia.
Eligibility: To schedule a patient consultation, please call The Blood & Marrow Transplant Group of Georgia at 404-255-1930.
>18 years of age with unresectable or metastatic melanoma
Must have progressed on at least 1 previous systemic therapy, including a PD-L1 antibody, and if they had BRAF V600E mutation-positive disease, a BRAF or BRAF/MEK inhibitor
At least 1 resectable lesion
TIL therapy: An innovative approach to cancer treatment
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is a promising cancer treatment that harnesses the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells. Developed by Iovance Biotherapeutics, this one-time treatment offers hope for patients with relapsed, unresectable or metastatic melanoma who have exhausted traditional therapies.
How TIL therapy works
Dr. Melhem Solh, medical director of the cellular therapy program at Northside Hospital, explained that TIL therapy involves expanding the patient’s own immune cells to help fight melanoma.
Addressing bone marrow health disparities
July is recognized as African American Bone Marrow Awareness Month, an opportunity to highlight health disparities affecting Black and African American patients in need of life-saving blood stem cell and bone marrow therapies.
We asked Dr. Lizamarie Bachier, an attending physician with the Northside’s blood and marrow transplant and hematologic malignancy programs, to discuss these disparities and what can be done to increase access to treatment options and improve outcomes.
Q&A: CAR T-cell therapy
Dr. Melhem Solh, medical director of the cellular therapy program at Northside Hospital, answers common questions about CAR T-cell therapy and discusses its role in the treatment of cancer.
What is CAR T-cell therapy and how does it work?
Dr. Solh: CAR T-cell therapy, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, is an advanced form of cancer treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells. A patient’s own T-cells are engineered to find and destroy cancer cells. When the cells are infused back into the patient, they will attack the cancer and get rid of it.
Patient Stories
Diane’s story: Beat lymphoma with CAR T-cell therapy
Diane Ashby of Roswell, Georgia, says her cancer journey began in an “oh-so-unexpected” manner. In the fall of 2022, she finally decided to retire after 48 years of service across three major technology companies. She and her family spent a week at the beach to celebrate. That’s when she started experiencing unbelievable pain in her stomach – like nothing she’d ever felt before. Thinking it was perhaps food poisoning, I was not really concerned. Click Here to read full interview
Lyle’s story: Thankful for CAR T-cell therapy
With the holidays upon us, Lyle Hermann says he has a lot to be thankful for — recently adding CAR T-cell therapy to his list.
In January 2016, Lyle was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that develops in plasma cells in the bone marrow; it’s similar to lymphoma and leukemia. Click Here to read full interview
Lynn’s story: From stage 4 cancer to cancer-free
I did not find any suspicious growth on my body. Instead, I went to a neurosurgeon for back pain. An MRI was ordered. Carter Cooper, PAC called to inform me that my spine was fine, but my liver needed further attention. After a second MRI, he suggested I go to the hospital for more testing. I spent one week at Northside Hospital Forsyth, undergoing MRI scans, a PET scan, a mammogram, a breast ultrasound, a colonoscopy and multiple biopsies. The results: I had melanoma in my colon, liver, spleen and throughout my lymph nodes. Click Here to read full interview
