Celebrating life: lessons learned from a bone marrow transplant reunion

The number of persons undergoing bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has increased dramatically over the last decade to more nearly 15,000 each year throughout the world. Addressing the physical and psychosocial needs of this particular population is of utmost importance as greater numbers of persons face the challenges associated with surviving BMT. Most of the research to date has been with survivors of allogeneic transplants. The increasing number of autologous transplant survivors presents a new constituency to evaluate. A reunion was held at a regional cancer center to bring together former BMT patients, their families, and the staff who had cared for them. The purpose was to provide attendees with a forum in which to ask questions, to offer them a historical perspective on this treatment, and to begin to gather long-term data on their transplant experiences. The latter was done initially by mail questionnaire and continued in the day's breakout sessions. The information gained provides a strong incentive to increase research efforts on long-term effects of BMT. The reunion surpassed everyone's expectations both in terms of attendance and overall success of the program content and networking, which has continued.