Professors and medical workers at the National Cancer Center celebrated completing 600 cases of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) at the hospital Monday.

Medical workers at the National Cancer Center pose for a commemorative photo for the completion of 600 hematopoietic stem cell transplantations at the hospital Monday.

HSCT is a method to treat patients with blood cancers such as leukemia, multiple myeloma, and malignant lymphoma by removing cancer cells through chemotherapy or irradiation and replacing them with new hematopoietic stem cells through transplantation.

NCC doctors have performed successful HSCT for about 480 adults since 2005 when the hospital first started transplantations, according to the hospital.

"In addition to homologous and autologous transplantation, we have achieved stable results in high-complexity cord blood transplantation, blood coagulation transplantation, and mini-transplantation for the elderly patients whose numbers continue to grow,” said Professor Eom Hyeon-seok, chief of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Center at NCC.

Around 140 children also successfully got the transplantation.

“The Center for Pediatric Oncology has completed transplantations for not only blood cancers but also for solid tumors, including brain tumors, neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma and Ewing's sarcoma," said Professor Park Hyeon-jin, head of NCC’s Center for Pediatric Oncology. "We plan to actively carry out optimal stem cell transplantation treatments for brain tumors in children, hematologic malignancies, and secondary malignancies."

The hospital noted a recent increase in the number of international transplants after it gained donor data from the Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (BMDW), a nonprofit organization that helps collect data of hematopoietic cell donors and cord blood units around the world.

So far, NCC physicians have completed 15 “international” transplants with stem cells donated by individuals from Taiwan, China, U.S., Japan, Thailand, and Germany.

The National Cancer Center first completed allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation between siblings in May 2005 and went on to carry out a variety of other transplants, including autologous and cord-blood stem cell transplantations.

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