Our Expertise

As a patient at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, you will work with physicians from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and UW Medicine who are experts in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and myeloproliferative disorders (also called myeloproliferative neoplasms, or MPN). Patients come here from across the United States and around the world because SCCA is one of the leading centers in the world for care of patients with these diseases. We provide comprehensive, leading-edge diagnosis and treatment.

Our physicians and scientists have made and continue to make important contributions to the understanding of MDS and MPN, from establishing the diagnosis to treating even advanced disease. They work on MDS and MPN at all levels, from basic laboratory research to medical therapy to epidemiology. Members of our team are invited to present their latest findings and treatment results at meetings around the globe—such as the 10th International Symposium on MDS in May 2009 in Greece—and from there they bring back additional knowledge generated by international colleagues.

The Hutchinson Center has special expertise in hematopoietic cell (bone marrow and stem cell) transplantation, the only treatment option with the potential to cure MDS or MPN. The Center is home to one of the largest hematopoietic cell transplant program in the world. Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who pioneered bone marrow transplantation and developed the clinical transplant program at the Hutchinson Center, was awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology in 1990.

The goal of SCCA physician researchers is to build on these accomplishments and develop new lifesaving options for all patients with serious blood diseases. MDS patients at SCCA are already benefiting from new and innovative therapies, such as bone marrow transplants following reduced-intensity conditions (sometimes called mini-transplants), immunotherapy, cord-blood transplants, and other treatments.

Over the years, tens of thousands of patients diagnosed with MDS, MPN, and other malignant and non-malignant blood disorders have come to SCCA to receive the latest treatments.

We offer compassionate support during and after your care and are committed to helping you understand your health and treatment options because you and your family are part of the care team, too.