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New Outpatient Cellular Therapy Center Opens at Siteman Cancer Center

By Stephanie Stemmler |
Outpatient Cellular Therapy Center Image
Faculty and staff celebrate the opening of the Outpatient Cellular Therapy Center. Faculty and staff celebrate the opening of the Outpatient Cellular Therapy Center.

A new Outpatient Cellular Therapy Center has opened at Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

With nine infusion beds and three infusion chairs, the center is on the eighth floor of Schoenberg Pavilion on the Washington University Medical Campus in the Central West End. The center is accessible through:

The new center offers outpatient therapies to certain patients diagnosed with lymphoma or multiple myeloma who receive one of three treatment options: CAR T-cell therapy, autologous stem cell transplant or immunotherapy with the use of bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTEs).

“These patients typically would be admitted to the hospital for two to four weeks,” said medical oncologist Amanda Cashen, MD, Washington University associate chief of hematologic malignancies and a stem cell transplant specialist at Siteman. “We’ve carefully planned this center for several years, because we wanted to offer a high standard of care in a safe setting. It complements our 96-bed inpatient stem cell and immunotherapy unit and is supported by our 24/7 cancer care clinic and a dedicated intensive care unit for emergencies or after-hours care.”

Medical oncologist Armin Ghobadi, MD, clinical director of the Center for Gene and Cellular Immunotherapy at Washington University, said patients often prefer outpatient treatment options over spending the night at the hospital. “We’ve set it up so that all of the patients undergoing BiTE immunotherapy will be outpatient,” he said. “For CAR T and autologous transplants, where the patient is his or her own donor, we believe up to 75% of our patients can have most of their treatment and monitoring in the outpatient setting, too.”

Short hospital stays still may be required but far fewer than was the case before the new center opened. Key to outpatient care, Ghobadi said, is the requirement that a caregiver remain with the patient while at home. “Some insurers don’t approve outpatient cellular or stem cell therapies without a dedicated caregiver,” he explained.

Kelly Terrell, MBA, BSN, RN, BMTCN, senior clinical program manager for hematologic malignancies, cellular therapy and transplantation at Siteman, said the care team educates patients and their caregivers so they understand the entire process and how to access any needed after-hours care. “But outpatient treatments for multiple myeloma and lymphoma are safe. Now patients can avoid long hospitalizations that previously were a deterrent to those who needed these therapies.”

The Outpatient Cellular Therapy Center includes the expertise of bone marrow transplant and cell therapy specialists, advanced nurse practitioners and infusion nurses, as well as case coordinators, a social worker and a pharmacist. Washington University physicians at Siteman perform more than 200 autologous stem cell transplants and 90 CAR T-cell procedures annually. The team also has treated more than 60 patients with BiTEs. “We envision ramping up the outpatient offerings rapidly,” Ghobadi said. “We already have six CAR T therapies that are FDA-approved, and more are in the pipeline.”

Cashen added: “As we see more treatment options become available, we can introduce new patient populations to outpatient care. I see this as a growing trend, because it is safe and convenient for patients.”