No one, least of all a child, should ever be diagnosed with cancer. Those who are in New Jersey shouldn’t have to leave the state for outstanding care.
Children, adolescents and young adults with cancer and blood disorders have access to New Jersey’s most advanced and comprehensive pediatric oncology and hematology program at The Bristol Myers-Squibb Children’s Hospital (BMSCH) at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
This year, that care will be enhanced with the launch of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program, one of New Jersey’s only pediatric bone marrow transplant programs and the only one in state at an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, which assists pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area, has made a generous donation to support BMSCH’s soon-to-be-established program.
The contribution comes on the anniversary of Marisa’s untimely passing and a little more than a year after her father, Greg, underwent a stem cell transplant through Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJUH following a diagnosis of Stage III multiple myeloma, a rare form of blood cancer.
Children receiving cellular therapy or stem cell transplantations will be treated in BMSCH’s pediatric hematology/oncology unit with pre-transplant evaluations and post-transplant outpatient care taking place at Rutgers Cancer Institute.
An interdisciplinary team of healthcare providers including physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, psychologists, social workers, case managers, pharmacists, child life specialists, nutritionists, and other healthcare providers devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and care of children with cancer and blood disorders will lead BMSCH’s new program.
The program at BMSCH and Rutgers Cancer Institute will offer patients and their families a new service of specialized care close to home and with the family’s full network of support helping patients heal.
The program will provide transplantation of hematopoietic (or blood) stem cells derived from bone marrow as a treatment option for a variety of acquired and congenital disorders. They include Leukemia, Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, sarcomas, brain tumors, bone marrow failure syndrome, immune deficiency syndrome, metabolic disorders, and sickle cell anemia.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation is honored to donate to BMSCH’s new program because of the outstanding care Marisa and Greg received from BMSCH, RWJUH and Rutgers Cancer Institute, and because Greg and his wife Cyndi fully comprehend what being able to be treated in state means for New Jersey’s pediatric patients and their families.
Born with a complex cardiac defect, Marisa survived six open-heart surgeries and a heart transplant before succumbing to a rare form of cancer (a lymphoma known as post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder) in 2017 following a valiant battle. She was just 13 years old.
All seven of Marisa’s complicated heart surgeries and subsequent cancer care were conducted at hospitals in Pennsylvania or New York, well over an hour away from her Edison home.
Marisa spent more than two years in a hospital, including many stays and emergency department visits at BMSCH. She also maintained hundreds of doctor’s appointments across three states.
As a result, Greg and Cyndi, who were always by Marisa’s side, know the emotional, physical, and financial strain out-of-state hospitalization and treatment can place on children and their parents.
“With the launch of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at BMSCH, children through young adults in New Jersey afflicted with cancer and blood disorders now have the option of receiving stem cell transplantations or cellular therapy at the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center,” Greg said. “They will have access to the same outstanding care adults such as myself have been privileged to receive for years through Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJUH. This is a wonderful development for children and their families in our state.”
Diagnosed in July 2021, Greg underwent several months of chemotherapy and treatment before receiving high-dose chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant at Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJUH in December 2021. The transplant was performed through Rutgers Cancer Institute’s Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapies Program, which has been performing autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplants since 1995.
Greg remains under the care of Rutgers Cancer Institute’s outstanding team, including Mansi R. Shah, MD, hematologist-oncologist in the Multiple Myeloma Program. In addition, Greg receives care from Dr. James Salwitz, oncologist and past president of the medical staff at RWJUH. Greg said Dr. Shah and Dr. Salwitz top the list of the most dedicated and caring doctors he has ever been privileged to know.
“I’m blessed beyond words to have received and to continue to receive outstanding care from the exceptional team at Rutgers Cancer Institute, which over the course of nearly three decades continues to work toward perfecting the bone marrow transplant process,” Greg said. “One can’t overstate what it means for pediatric patients to now be afforded that same level of treatment in New Jersey.”
Since its inception five years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has donated more than a quarter of a million dollars to fulfill its mission. The nonprofit has also donated thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter jackets, baby supplies, and other items upon which it has placed no monetary value.
Supporting BMSCH and the families it serves has and will remain a focal point of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s efforts.