Dr. Nelson J. Chao

What makes Duke Health unique in bone marrow transplants is its holistic approach. We take care of the disease -- which is important, because these are very serious, potentially fatal diseases. But at the same time, we pay attention to patients’ emotional and psychological well-being in addition to their physical well-being. And not only for patients but also the whole family, because the caregivers and other parts of the family need attention as well. I wanted to go into medicine, because it was a great way to interact and take care of patients. In my mind, cancer is one of two diseases within internal medicine where you can actually cure people. The best part of bone marrow transplant is that the time between the laboratory and the patient is short. Patients who need a transplant tend to be relatively sick and in need of new therapies. That’s been very intellectually challenging and fun.

Dr. Chao is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL). His top areas of expertise are Graft Versus Host Disease (GvHD), Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease (cGvHD), Multiple Myeloma, Bone Marrow Transplant, and Bone Graft.

His clinical research consists of co-authoring 200 peer reviewed articles and participating in 4 clinical trials. MediFind looks at clinical research from the past 15 years.