Josh Ferris was sitting in a hunting blind on Nov. 15, 2018, the first day of deer season in Michigan and the one-year anniversary of his stem cell donation, when he received an email from Todd Adams of Nashville, the recipient of his life-saving gift.

About a decade ago, at the beginning of his career in academic medicine, Brian Engelhardt, MD, MSCI, noticed that many of his patients receiving a stem cell transplant for their blood cancer ended up with diabetes.

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Stem Cell Transplant ranks among the best in the nation for donor stem cell transplant survival rates among large centers, according to an annual report.

Extracorporeal photopheresis treatment for stem cell transplant-related complications produces a response in up to 60 percent of patients.

Charlotte Haffner, Vanderbilt’s first patient to undergo a heart transplant followed by a stem cell transplant to treat a plasma cell disorder called primary AL amyloidosis, now she dedicates her time to raising awareness about the rare disease.

When Darlena Clark of Hendersonville, Tennessee, saw Jon Strong for the first time at Nashville International Airport she, “just grabbed him and hugged him and just held on.”