|
Aplastic Anemia News - Return to News Menu
Dana-Farber performs transplant 1000
June 17, 2005 - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in partnership with Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston, recently marked its 1000th unrelated blood stem cell transplantation procedure, making it the first in New England - and one of only a few nationally - to achieve this milestone.
Dana-Farber has one of the oldest and largest stem cell transplantation programs in the United States. Dana-Farber's adult transplantation service is operated jointly with Brigham and Women's Hospital (Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center), and its pediatric transplantation service is operated jointly with Children's Hospital Boston (Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Care).
Concord, MA, resident Stephen Collins, who has myelodysplastic syndrome (a blood disorder) that evolved to acute leukemia, received the transplant on May 9 at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
"Mr. Collins was an ideal candidate for this procedure, thanks in part to his good physical condition and the availability of a fully matched unrelated donor," said Vincent Ho, MD, who is Collins' transplant physician at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center.
Collins, 61, received his cells from an anonymous donor through a procedure known as a non-ablative or a "mini" transplant. In a non-ablative transplant, lower doses of drugs (chemotherapy) are used than in traditional transplant, thus potentially sparing the patient from the toxicity and complications of high-dose therapy.
Stem cell transplantation has been used for more than 30 years to treat a variety of cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, and noncancerous conditions, such as aplastic anemia. It is also used to treat some types of solid tumors when other treatments have failed. Stem cells help replenish the body's supply of blood and immune system cells.
Allogeneic transplants involve infusing stem cells from a carefully matched donor, either a family member or someone who is an unrelated donor, into the patient after they have undergone radiation or chemotherapy - or a combination of both - to treat their disease. If a family member is not a suitable match, as in Collins' case, a search is conducted through a worldwide database to find an unrelated donor. Approximately seventy percent of patients in North America who need a transplant will require an unrelated donor.
"The rapid increase in unrelated transplants really speaks to how far we've come in perfecting the process," said Joseph Antin, MD, Chief of Stem Cell Transplantation. "Because of the advances we've made in understanding the biology of stem cell transplantation, the alterations in the immune system needed to perform a successful transplantation, and improvements in supportive care, we have seen progressively better results and have been applying transplantation to a wider range of patients."
Dana-Farber's transplant center is a member of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which maintains a registry of potential bone marrow and blood stem cell donors. In addition to the NMDP database, Dana-Farber can access additional registries with a combined total of more than 9 million donors worldwide to identify a potential match for its patients. Collins' match came from a volunteer donor from another country.
As for Collins, who is an accounting professor at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, he is happy to share his story "to help other people realize how easy it is to change someone's life. I'd love to see more people consider registering to be a stem cell donor -it's a no-brainer, it's easy."
As part of the NMDP, Dana-Farber encourages people to register to be a potential marrow donor. The process begins with a simple blood test, but becoming a volunteer donor is a serious commitment. Those who join the registry are asked to remain committed to donating for any patient, anywhere in the world, regardless of the patient's sex, age, race or ethnicity, and until their 61st birthday. This commitment can mean the difference between life and death for the patient.
"There are so many good causes to give back to, it's sometimes hard for a person to decide which ones to support," said Collins. "With stem cell donation, you're giving a renewable resource. You will regenerate your own stem cells, and it can save someone's life."
To find out more about the National Marrow Donor Program at Dana-Farber or to learn how to join the registry, call 866-875-3324, email nmdpdonor@dfci.harvard.edu, or visit online at www.dana-farber.org/how/donatebone.
Foresthill marrow donor says her part was 'so easy'
By: Michelle Miller
Amber Gemmell
July 26, 2006 - After seeing Danielle English and another friend in need, Amber Gemmell, 30, of Foresthill, was inspired to sign up for the bone marrow registry.
"I wasn't able to donate to them, but they put me on the registry and I forgot all about it," Gemmell said Wednesday. "Then eight or 10 years later I got a letter that I was a match for this guy."
She was a match for a 22-year-old man overseas who had aplastic anemia. At first, the man couldn't have the procedure, but Gemmell got the phone call earlier this year saying that he was ready to receive a marrow donation from her, if she was still willing.
"My house had flooded, I was getting married and my fiancé's brothers were getting married," she said. "It was just a crazy time to get a call saying, 'You're a match, can you do it?'"
Gemmell went for it, receiving injections that boosted her marrow and spending seven hours on a machine that extracted it from her blood during a procedure on May 22 at Stanford University.
"More than anything, I want people to be aware of donating and the registry," she said. "It's not the easiest thing in the world, but it's so easy when you compare it to the life that's being saved."
Gemmell is pleased to learn the recipient of her donation is doing well.
"Without it, he would have died," she said. "My part was so easy. Saving someone was the least I could do and when I heard that he made it, well, that was just awesome."
|
