Living Beyond Bone Marrow Transplantation

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Learn About MSK's Adult Survivorship Program

Dr. Ginger Gardner highlights the expert care people receive after they finish active cancer treatment and move into MSK's Adult Survivorship Program. 
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We’ve built a program designed for cancer survivors and their families. Our Adult Survivorship Program has many services for you and your loved ones, including support groups, follow-up programs, educational resources, and more. We also have an annual gathering where all of our survivors and their families get to celebrate with their doctors, nurses, and other staff.

Plus, our Resources for Life After Cancer program offers individual and family counseling, lectures, support groups, and practical guidance on employment and insurance issues, among other services. Visit the Adult Survivorship Program to learn more.

Rehabilitation and Exercise

Undergoing a stem cell transplant can sap your strength, flexibility, mobility, and endurance. Our rehabilitation specialists can teach you therapeutic exercises and training programs that can help you heal. Our state-of-the-art facilities are specially tailored to the needs of people who’ve undergone treatment for cancer.

Learn more about how we can help you get moving again.

Supportive Care and Pain Management

At Memorial Sloan Kettering, we focus on all aspects of comprehensive cancer care, not just treating the disease. Our specialists in supportive care can help you cope with the side effects of therapy. These include pain, nausea, and fatigue. We can also help with the emotional and spiritual needs that often come up during and after cancer treatment.

Learn more about how our Supportive Care Service can help you throughout the cancer experience

If you are in pain during your treatments or even after they’re over, we have pain specialists who can help. We will build a plan that makes sense for you and your needs. Our experts can work with your doctor and pharmacists to give you solutions for both acute physical pain, which comes on suddenly, as well as chronic pain, which can linger. Our goal is to keep you as comfortable as possible.

Learn more about how we can relieve your pain

Counseling and Support

Sometimes, you and your loved ones just need someone to talk to, someone who’s trained to help you make sense of your experience before, during, and after your transplant.

Our Counseling Center offers both individual and group counseling sessions to help you and your family cope with your disease. These sessions can be a healthy, productive way to work through the stress and anxiety that are sometimes a part of treatment and recovery.

Learn more about how we can support your emotional well-being

Integrative Medicine

Medical treatments are often the best way to treat your cancer. Their whole purpose is to get you healthy again. But at MSK, we know that complementary services can also help soothe and heal not only your body but also your mind and spirit.

Our Integrative Medicine Service can be a valuable part of your formal treatment plan. Programs we offer include massage, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, meditation, visualization, music therapy, and nutritional counseling. Formal classes include yoga, tai chi, and chair aerobics.

Learn more about the variety of complementary services we offer

Nutrition

Many people who have undergone stem cell transplantation experience problems like distorted taste sensations and lingering nausea and diarrhea. Until your immune system recovers you will need to follow a low-microbial diet. This special diet decreases your risk of getting sick.

Our food and nutrition team is trained in helping you understand and cope with these situations after your transplant.

Our expert dietitians provide medical nutrition therapy that can help you manage digestion problems, changes in taste and your weight, and other issues. They’ll work closely with your treatment team to customize a dietary plan that fits your own specific needs.

Learn more about our nutrition services for patients and survivors.

Older Patients

Recovering from a stem cell transplant is a challenge for anyone, regardless of age. But if you’re over 65, you may face unique issues that only affect people in your age group. We’re committed to providing people of all ages who have cancer with the treatment, facilities, and support they need.

Your treatment team will include healthcare professionals who have the specialized training and experience to effectively treat older patients. Every aspect of your care — diagnosis, treatment, recovery, support — will be tailored to meet your particular needs.

Learn more about how we care for older patients

Sexual Health

Stem cell transplants can affect sexual health in both men and women.

For women, our Female Sexual Medicine and Women’s Health Program will connect you to a specially trained counselor who can help you find solutions to issues affecting your sexual health.

For men, the doctors and nurses of our Male Sexual and Reproductive Medicine Program can help you manage the potential sexual side effects of stem cell transplantation. They can also explain your options for storing sperm before beginning your treatment.

Learn more about how we can help you with sexual health issues

Tobacco Treatment

Beyond the many other health issues it causes, smoking is a serious risk factor for many types of cancer, and it can also make cancer treatments less effective. If you smoke, we want to help you stop — now — to reduce your risk of getting a second cancer or impairing your treatment.

The Tobacco Treatment Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering is ready to help if you’re ready to quit. Giving up tobacco is hard. And quitting while in treatment presents a unique challenge. But it’s a challenge you can overcome, and we can help you do it. We’ll also help family members who want to quit with you.

Learn more about how we can help you quit using tobacco, for good