Archive for the ‘Bone Marrow Stem Cells’ Category

Dear Dr. Roach: I hope you can answer some questions about myelodysplastic syndrome. What does it do to your body? Is there a known cause or cure? What is the prognosis? P.B.

Dear P.B.: The myelodysplastic syndromes are a group of similar diseases, specific types of blood cancers, that prevent your bone marrow from working properly. They also can transform into acute leukemia. These are uncommon cancers, with perhaps 30,000 cases per year in the U.S. The specific myelodysplastic syndromes are now categorized by appearance, genetic abnormalities of the cells, and condition of the bone marrow.

MDS may arise from damage to DNA, such as from radiation or other toxic exposures. However, many cases have no known cause, and it's likely that these are spontaneous mutations in the bone marrow cells.

Because MDS is a group of related diseases, the treatment and prognosis vary among the different subtypes. However, supporting the bone marrow with transfusions of red blood cells and platelets often is necessary. Medications to stimulate both red and white blood cell production can be used. A few people will be recommended for bone marrow (stem cell) transplant, but the decision to consider this treatment must be made cautiously, as many people who get MDS will not benefit from this treatment due to age or other medical conditions.

Dear Dr. Roach:My 89-year-old mother suffers from ''fluttering'' in her heart. She saw an expert in cardiac arrhythmias, who diagnosed her with ''tachy-brady syndrome'' and ''sick sinus syndrome.'' A nurse also said she has PVCs. She is taking metoprolol, but still has episodes of fluttering. What are these conditions? Are there other medications she could take to correct this heart condition? M.D.P.

Dear M.D.P.:Tachy-brady syndrome (from the Greek roots for ''fast'' and ''slow'') and sick sinus syndrome are the same thing. The ''sinus'' in ''sick sinus syndrome'' refers to the sino-atrial node of the heart, which is the heart's natural pacemaker. It is where every beat normally starts. This part of the heart can become diseased, and the heart can beat both too quickly (tachycardia) and, at other times, too slowly (bradycardia).

Medications are sometimes used for sick sinus syndrome. Beta blockers, like the metoprolol your mother is taking, are given to slow down the tachycardic component of sick sinus, but it can make the bradycardia worse. Most often, the treatment for sick sinus syndrome is a permanent pacemaker.

Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell.edu.

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'Myelodysplastic syndrome' covers a range of diseases - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

In 15 years, LifeCell is the second stem cell bank to present its innovation (concept of 'Community Stem Cell Banking') at the 15th International Cord Blood Symposium scheduled to be held at San Diego, USA between 8th - 10th June, 2017.

Singapore - LifeCell International (India's first and the largest stem cell bank)has made an entry into global platform with their recently launched concept of 'Community Stem Cell Banking'. It is believed to be a general practice that technological advancements and new concepts from the western world and other countries percolate into the Indian market. In 15 years, LifeCell is the second stem cell bank to present its innovation at such a prestigious global platform.

Acknowledging the merit of this concept, LifeCell has been invited by AABB (formerly known as American Association of Blood Banks) to portray its recently launched concept of 'Community Stem Cell Banking' at the 15th International Cord Blood Symposium scheduled to be held at San Diego, USA between 8th - 10th June, 2017.

The International Cord Blood Symposium (ICBS) brings all the umbilical cord blood related fields of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, banking and potential in regenerative medicine together in one interactive three-day conference where world-renowned experts in the field of cord blood will present their new innovations on advancements in the industry.

LifeCell has continuously been adding new innovations to its services. The innovative concept of 'Community Stem Cell Banking' allows access to donor stem cells within the community, thereby extending the protection of stem cells to all conditions treatable by stem cells. In addition to the child, its siblings, parents and grandparents too can access the community pool of preserved stem cells for treatments when required thereby extending the protection of stem cells to the entire family. Also, there is no limit on number of withdrawals of stem cell units from the community providing a comprehensive protection.

Mr Mayur Abhaya, CEO & Managing Director, LifeCell International said, "We are delighted with this acknowledgment for our innovations in stem cell industry. It is a prestigious moment for us being given an opportunity to present Community Stem Cell Banking in a global platform of industry leaders."

Community Stem Cell Banking will be the future of umbilical cord stem cell banking especially in a country like India where the inventory of donor stem cells or bone marrow registries of Indian ethnicity is very low at less than 1% of global inventory and hence the availability of matching donor stem cells is very low. LifeCell, with this new concept, aims to create a huge inventory of donor stem cells within the next few years, which could even exceed the global standards and this will pave way for the highest probability of finding a matching stem cell unit. Mr Vinesh Mandot, Technical Lead at LifeCell, would be presenting this innovative model in a session chaired by Dr. Frances Verter, Director of Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation at the international symposium.

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LifeCell's Community Stem Cell Banking Receives Global Recognition - BSA bureau (press release)

Stem cells might not be a good option for your kid's sports injury Miami Herald They are seen as the body's master cells, and studies have shown these cells have the capacity to differentiate into bone, cartilage, muscle and ligament tissues. MSC cells are usually harvested from bone marrow or fat cells. Evidence from laboratory ...

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Stem cells might not be a good option for your kid's sports injury - Miami Herald

Scholar finds that many citizens are comfortable with providing financial incentives to living organ donors.

Every year, the United States receives 35,000 new requests for kidney transplants. Kidney reserves, however, can supply only 17,000 procedures per year. Over time, this difference between need and supply has produced a wait list including roughly 100,000 patients hoping to receive kidneys, many of whom will die on the wait list. As a result, the time a patient is expected to remain on the wait list is less than the life expectancy of someone with kidney failure. What would it take for you to agree to donate a kidney? Direct payment? A tax incentive? Free health care coverage? A club membership guarantee that you would be the first to receive an organ if you needed it?

Nicola Lacetera, a professor at the University of Torontos Institute for Management and Innovation, has found that U.S. residents are likely to support the provision of governmental incentives directed toward living donors.

Specifically, Lacetera found that 50 percent of the over 3,000 people surveyed supported providing incentives to donors. In addition, 70 percent of participants surveyed agreed that the government should pay living donors if it were certain that doing so would increase the supply of organs.

Providing incentives would not just increase access to organs by a marginal percentage. It would eliminate the kidney transplant wait list. Economists estimate that paying donors $15,000 to $30,000 for their organs would eliminate the 100,000-person wait list within a few years.

Providing incentives to living organ donors has become a pressing policy question, with recent scientific developments rendering donation less invasive. Some countries have chosen to provide incentives to live organ donors. In Israel, for example, a live organ donor not only receives a refund for lost earnings from the time necessary for the procedure and recovery, but also receives refunds on medical and life insurance, and does not have to pay the national health tax for three years. Lacetera states that, in the United States, a federal appeals court recently concluded that it was not illegal to pay blood stem cell donors, although payment for organ donation is criminalized.

Why has the United States not adopted a new policy, like Israel?

Lacetera argues that, despite the support indicated in the survey, people are generally opposed to providing incentives to living organ donors for two reasons. First, we may be concerned with the implementation of any donation incentive program. Second, although we might support the program in theory, the thought of actually adopting one is a repugnant transaction.

In a case recently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, parents of children who had leukemia and other diseases that can be alleviated with bone marrow transplants sued Eric Holder, the then-U.S. Attorney General, arguing that the National Organ Transplant Act was unconstitutional in its denial of payments for bone marrow transplants.

A nonprofit organization, More Marrow Donors (MMD), which aims to pay donors for their bone marrow, joined the lawsuit. MMD proposed a program in which, through a new extraction operation, removal of the complete fatty substance of the bone marrow would not be necessary. Instead, the valuable blood stem cells from the bone marrow could be collected and separated from the rest of the blood stream. MMD sought to provide donation incentives by awarding donors $3,000 in the form of scholarships, housing allowances, or gifts to charities. In other words, the donor would not receive the funding directly. The National Organ Transplant Act, however, criminalized payment for organ donations, which included bone marrow. MMD argued that prohibiting such payments is unconstitutional.

Furthermore, Lacetera argues that we might be concerned with adverse selection in the donor incentive program. As Lacetera explains, the people who might benefit most from the incentives may also be those who would be more likely to carry transmissible diseases such as hepatitis. A system of in-kind rewards and delayed compensation, however, like MMDs proposed housing allowances, would address these concerns.

In considering whether an organ incentive program could be coercive, the court explained that Congress may have been concerned that if donors could be paid, rich patients or the medical industry might induce poor people to sell their organs, even when the transplant would create excessive medical risk, pain, or disability for the donor.

Still, effective policy and regulation could address these concerns. Lacetera argues these concerns are amenable to tradeoff thinking, in which the downsides could be weighed against the potential efficiency gains that payments may cause, such as an increase in organ supply. Lacetera found that the average respondent supported a policy in which a public agency controls payment for donations and allocation of organs if the end result is a six percent increase in the organ supply. If we such a system were unregulated, then the average respondent would want a 20 percent increase in organ supply to justify the potential downsides of such a program.

Lacetera argues the there may be deeper concerns, however. Providing financial incentives to organ donors may violate our sacred values, which Lacetera defines as principles that individuals and societies are not willing to compromise against any other form of potential gain.

The Ninth Circuit anticipated this moral revulsion. As the court observed, [p]eople tend to have an instinctive revulsion at denial of bodily integrity, particularly removal of flesh from a human being for us by another, and this revulsion is most acute with commodification of such conduct, that is, the sale of ones bodily tissue.

In the end, the court did not need to decide the broad policy questions of the legality of organ donation incentives. Instead, the court held that blood stem cells, which are extracted through the blood stream rather than the bone marrow, were not considered organs. Compensating individuals for donating their bone marrow was legal.

The Department of Health and Human Services responded to the case by announcing that it would undertake a regulatory proceeding to redefine bone marrow to include the kinds of extraction methods discussed in that case, essentially overruling the appellate courts decision.

Originally posted here:
Regulating the Kidney Club - The Regulatory Review

Dear Dr. Roach: I hope you can answer some questions about myelodysplastic syndrome. What does it do to your body? Is there a known cause or cure? What is the prognosis?

A: The myelodysplastic syndromes are a group of similar diseases, specific types of blood cancers, that prevent your bone marrow from working properly. They also can transform into acute leukemia. These are uncommon cancers, with perhaps 30,000 cases per year in the U.S. The specific myelodysplastic syndromes are now categorized by appearance, genetic abnormalities of the cells and condition of the bone marrow.

MDS may arise from damage to DNA, such as from radiation or other toxic exposures. However, many cases have no known cause, and it's likely that these are spontaneous mutations in the bone marrow cells.

Because MDS is a group of related diseases, the treatment and prognosis vary among the different subtypes. However, supporting the bone marrow with transfusions of red blood cells and platelets often is necessary. Medications to stimulate both red and white blood cell production can be used. A few people will be recommended for bone marrow (stem cell) transplant, but the decision to consider this treatment must be made cautiously, as many people who get MDS will not benefit from this treatment due to age or other medical conditions.

The prognosis depends on the age of the person affected and their specific MDS. A person younger than 60 with a low-risk MDS has a median survival (based on data published in 1997) of about 12 years. However, high-risk MDS has a much worse outcome: Half of people succumb within six months. Advances in treatment since these data were published have improved these results, but not as much as hoped.

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Dear Dr. Roach: Myelodysplastic syndromes rare - Herald & Review

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Terminally ill TV bailiff Delroy Anglin saw first-hand the love and support from the Croydon community trying to help him as in the space of two hours more than one hundred people signed up to "save his life".

The Croydon born and bred star of Channel 5's Can't Pay We'll Take it Away was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form off leukaemia earlier this year.

His one hope of being rid of the terminal bone blood cancer is to find a perfect match for a life-saving bone-marrow transplant.

READ MORE: Charity seeking to save life of Croydon TV star tells well-wishers - 'you can save him'

As a man of Afro-Caribbean descent, finding a match is extremely difficult the numbers of minority ethnic people on the donor register is very low.

Doctors have searched in vain on the worldwide register of stem cell (bone marrow) donors to save 56-year-old Delroy, who has called his diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) a "death sentence" unless a match can be found quickly.

For caucasian people with AML, the chances of finding a match for stem cells (bone marrow) are somewhere between 60% and 90%. However, for people of Afro-Caribbean people, the chances are only around 20% due to the low numbers registered to donate.

As a result the Croydon community was called on to step forward and see if there was someone in the borough who could save the dad-of-six's life.

At an event on Saturday (June 10) - which was attended by Delroy - more than 100 people signed up to the donor register in just two hours to see if their marrow would be the vital match.

The drive was for Afro-Caribbean people in particular to sign up at the event.

READ MORE: Kind local man donates 1 million to new Thornton Heath youth centre

"Delroy is always overwhelmed by the support, and he was overwhelmed by this response," said Ronke Oke, who organised the drive for donors in Croydon for charity Afro-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT).

"More than 100 people in just two hours that's pretty good.

"We hope it can make the difference.

"We would hope any one of those people could save his life. That's why we do what we do.

"We're trying to get as many people as possible to sign up in the hope that we can find a match for Delroy, and thousands of others in his position.

"He was there with his family on the day, they all saw the support for him.

"It's amazing witnessing that support online, and at the event."

The event was held art Boxpark between 10am and 12pm and within that time there was rush to sign up to the donor register which could yield a match for a bone marrow (stem cell) transplant.

READ MORE: Missing Croydon teenager found 'safe and well'

Those who missed the event but still wish to try and help Delroy can sign on to the register by visiting the ACLT website.

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More than 100 people sign donor register to try and save life of Croydon dad from Channel 5 show - Croydon Advertiser

Durham, NC (PRWEB) June 12, 2017

A new study demonstrates how an infusion of stem cells can assist in treating severe cases of aplastic anemia (AA) that do not respond to immunosuppressive therapy (IST) alone. The study, which appears in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), offers hope for patients with this rare disease, which occurs when the bone marrow does not produce enough blood cells to meet the bodys needs.

People with AA suffer from fatigue, frequent infections, rapid heart rate and bleeding. The more severe cases can be life threatening. While IST is accepted as the first-line treatment option for AA, 30 to 40 percent of patients with severe cases dont respond well to treatment and continue to suffer from an abnormally low level of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. IST therapy generally consists of anti-thymocyte globulin, which is an infusion of horse or rabbit-derived antibodies against human T cells, and the immunosuppressant medication cyclosporine.

These patients who dont respond to IST might require an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). However, about a third of them arent able to find a suitable donor. Also, people aged 50 and older are not eligible for transplant. Another issue with HSCT is that complications such as graft versus host disease and graft failure may occur. As such, the five-year overall survival rate of patients with severe AA that is refractory to IST is less than 60 percent.

In the SCTM study, a team of researchers led by Yan Pang, M.D., and Yang Xiao, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Hematology, Guangzhou General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command, in China, wanted to learn whether bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cell (BM-MSC) transfusions might help patients who did not respond to IST. The phase two clinical trial involved 74 patients at seven centers who each received four doses of stem cells over a period of four weeks. Patients with response rates after the first month continued to receive infusions.

After 12 months, our evaluations showed that the overall response rate was 28.4 percent, with 6.8 percent complete responses and 21.6 percent partial response, Dr. Xiao reported. At 17 months, the overall survival of the initial 74-patient group was 87.8 percent. Seven patients developed transitory and mild headache and fever, but no other adverse events were observed.

Our study strongly indicates that MSC infusion is a promising therapy for severe AA, but improved MSC cultures in vitro and the MSC doses need further study to maximize their therapeutic potential," added Dr. Pang.

This phase II clinical study, involving 74 patients, is significant because it suggests that a stem cell transfusion can be used to treat aplastic anemia that is non-responsive to first-line therapies. The advantages of the treatment are its safety and costs, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

###

Click for the full article, Allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells expanded in vitro for treatment of aplastic anemia: a multicenter phase II trial.

About STEM CELLS Translational Medicine: STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), published by AlphaMed Press, is a monthly peer-reviewed publication dedicated to significantly advancing the clinical utilization of stem cell molecular and cellular biology. By bridging stem cell research and clinical trials, SCTM will help move applications of these critical investigations closer to accepted best practices.

About AlphaMed Press: Established in 1983, AlphaMed Press with offices in Durham, NC, San Francisco, CA, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, publishes two other internationally renowned peer-reviewed journals: STEM CELLS (http://www.StemCells.com), celebrating its 35th anniversary, is the world's first journal devoted to this fast paced field of research. The Oncologist (http://www.TheOncologist.com), also a monthly peer-reviewed publication, in its 22nd year, is devoted to community and hospital-based oncologists and physicians entrusted with cancer patient care. All three journals are premier periodicals with globally recognized editorial boards dedicated to advancing knowledge and education in their focused disciplines.

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Study Shows Stem Cell Infusion Helps Treat Severe Cases of Aplastic Anemia - PR Web (press release)

Panchwati Tower on Harmu Road in Ranchi where the stem cell bank is expected to come up. (Hardeep Singh)

In what may be a game-changer for healthcare in Jharkhand, a group of doctors from Ranchi have teamed up with a Mumbai-based pioneering research firm to plan the first stem cell bank of eastern India in the state capital.

Stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that can differentiate into specialised cells and divide to produce more stem cells. They can be transplanted routinely to treat a variety of blood and bone marrow diseases, including cancer and immune disorders, while extensive research is underway on their potential to cure neurological and muscular problems.

In short, a stem cell bank in Ranchi will allow residents to store their embryonic or adult stem cells, which can be accessed anytime to treat ailing blood relatives.

Dr Deepak Verma, a senior orthopaedic consultant in the city specialising in difficult trauma surgery, said if everything went according to plan, the stem cell bank was expected to debut at Panchwati Tower on Harmu Road in another three to six months.

Dr Verma, along with pathologist Dr Sangita Agrawal and orthopaedic surgeon Dr S.N. Yadav, will form the core team of the Rs 6.5-crore facility, which will be set up in association with stem cell banking company ReeLabs, Mumbai.

"Ranchi will boast the fifth stem cell bank in India after Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Ahmedabad. It will be first such facility in eastern India. We plan to establish a stem cell treatment centre and a cancer immunotherapy centre to turn Ranchi into a healthcare destination," Dr Verma told this newspaper on Sunday.

While the bank will sprawl over an area of 5,000sqft, another 6,000sqft will be reserved for the therapy centres.

Elaborating on the banking system, the doctor said stem cells would be stored in cryogenic vials at minus 176 degrees and liquid nitrogen would be used to acquire the very low temperatures.

"People wishing to use the stem bank service will have to open an account. The bank will then collect stem cells from different sources such as placenta, amniotic sac, amniotic fluid, umbilical cord blood and cord tissue, menstrual blood, dental pulp, bone marrow and peripheral blood," Dr Verma said.

To deposit the stem cells, one may have to pay Rs 45,000 to Rs 2 lakh, depending on the package chosen.

"Those who will deposit stem cells can access the same for blood relatives suffering from 110 listed diseases that cannot be treated using conservative medicines," the doctor said, adding that stem cell therapy could help in cases of leukemia, thalassemia, Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes and cirrhosis of liver, among others.

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Bank on stem cells, gift a life - Calcutta Telegraph

islamabad - The Lipogems technology has great promise, but experts say itll take time to assess how successful the new procedure is the technology is ideal for patients with certain orthopaedic conditions, such as painful joints including the knee, ankle, or shoulder with limited range of motion. Additionally, it can be used in soft tissue defects located in tendons, ligaments, and/or muscles to improve the biologic environment, said Dr Brian Cole, professor of orthopaedic surgery, and section head of the Rush Cartilage Restoration Centre, in a press release. They are believed to help the natural regenerative processes in the body.

Hence they have earned the nickname as mini drug stores based on their ability to secrete a spectrum of bioactive molecules and support the natural regeneration of focal injuries.

Stem cells can be harvested from certain parts of the human body, most notably bone marrow and adipose tissue (fat).

Harvesting bone marrow stem cells is a significantly more invasive and time-consuming procedure that is performed using general anaesthesia.

Lipogems offers a novel approach to orthopaedic stem cell treatments by using a persons own fat.

The procedure uses a small incision into an area of subcutaneous fat, from which a quantity of fat tissue is harvested and processed by the Lipogems apparatus.

The technology itself, which really is the device that processes the fat, creates a concentration of fat that has been cleansed of all the extraneous things like red blood cells and fibrous tissues, Cole told. The concentrated stem cells within that fat tissue are then applied to the problematic joint or bone area.

Lipogems offers a streamlined procedure for stem cell treatment, but there is nothing new about the science itself.

The use of stem cells to treat a variety of conditions has been ongoing for some time now.

What were lacking is really good data at this point in the clinical setting, Cole said. There is substantial data in the laboratory suggesting that these cells may function in the way Ive described: reducing inflammation and so forth. But, we really dont have yet much in the way of good solid clinical data saying that definitively this is making a difference.

Instead, he would like those seeking orthopaedic treatment to understand that Lipogems is just one part of a much larger and more complex suite of tools used by physicians.

It has to be taken into context of all the other possible treatment options, from simply icing down a swollen ankle, to changing your daily activity, to surgery.

The unfortunate thing is that people think, well this is the solution that can be used instead of, say, a joint replacement and no longer do we need to do surgery, said Cole.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Nonetheless, Cole and his team are still excited about the possibilities of the Lipogems procedure. Using a readily available and easily accessible substance like fat as a source of stem cells could have far-reaching implications for procedures in the future. Were optimistic and intuitively there is a good argument to be made that this is as good or better than any other source of stem cells, said Cole.

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New Technology Uses Body Fat to Help Relieve Joint Pain - The Nation

Across Utah County, there are people waiting for donations, whether it is a needed organ, bone marrow or blood that will save their lives. Others have given these life-saving donations to complete strangers. Gift of Life highlights those involved in the medical donation process.

They found a perfect match for Robyn Marchant on a bone marrow registry. Robyn, a Santaquin mom with leukemia, needed a stem cell transplant if she wanted to live.

But they were never able to get ahold of the match.

That was hard, Robyn said, sitting on a couch in the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, next to a window that doesnt open and wearing a paisley headscarf. That was in March, at the beginning of my search.

There were two 9/10 matches on the Be The Match bone marrow registry. Doctors preferred her brothers blood work, and they decided to do the transplant with his half match. Its their best option, even if it isnt ideal.

But a lack of a match didnt stop Robyns family from hosting six drives, including ones in Provo and Spanish Fork, and adding more than 1,200 names to the bone marrow registry. They suspect theres more who have registered to Be the Match because of her, but havent used Robyns name as the promo code to link it to her name.

They might not be able to help my daughter, but I am praying there is somebody in the country who is doing the same thing to help my girl, said Shelly Bills, Robyns mother who has organized registration drives.

If Robyns transplant doesnt take, shell need another one.

And even if she doesnt need another donor from the registry, theyre hoping the names theyve added will save someone elses life.

Theres a lot of people who have never heard of the Be the Match Registry, which in all honesty we have never heard about until this happened, and now our whole town down in Santaquin knows about it, said Kevin, Robyns husband.

Diagnosis

Robyn, mom to 9-year-old Kassidy, 6-year-old Korbin, 4-year-old McKinley and 1-year-old McKellan, is a busy woman who served as a former Relief Society president for her ward in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She started to feel really tired at the end of January and brushed it off as being worn out from having a baby. Things started to get worse to the point where shed feel like she was going to pass out when she climbed up the stairs.

It was originally thought to be anemia, but that treatment wasnt changing anything. Then her spleen started to ache.

Kevin, a pharmacist, told Robyns doctor he suspected his wife had leukemia.

Nobody expects a 31-year-old mom of four kids to get cancer, Robyn said. We were all just so overwhelmed.

She didnt ask for percentages, and only knew she wasnt going to live without a stem cell transplant.

As the oldest, Kassidy started to piece things together. The kids, who knew a neighborhood child who died after being diagnosed with cancer, were devastated.

Our kids immediately associate cancer with death, which made it hard, Kevin said.

According to Be the Match, 70 percent of patients who need a bone marrow transplant dont have a fully matched donor in their family, and 14,000 patients a year will need a transplant for someone outside their family.

For Robyn, it wasnt supposed to be hard to find someone.

The doctors at the beginning said we wont have trouble finding you a match, Robyn said. Youre Caucasian, female, of western descent, theres tons of people out there. Well find you a match. But apparently Im one in a million because we just couldnt find one.

Finding a match

Bills woke up in the middle of the night a few weeks after Robyns diagnosis knowing she had to do something.

Even though they dont plan to hold another registration drive for a while, Bills is still handing out registration kits, and a friend started the hashtag #SwabbinForRobyn.

My mind keeps saying people are so willing, they just dont know, they dont know there is something they can do to save a life, Bills said.

Shes also encouraging people already on the registry to update their contact information so another family doesnt have the same experience theyve had.

Signing up for the registry is quick process that requires a cheek swab to add a donors tissue type to the registry. Once signed up, they will remain on the registry until they are 61 or request to be removed.

Registration can be done online at Join.BeTheMatch.org. To link the registration to Robyns name, use the promo code Robyn.

Potential donors have to be between the ages of 18 and 44 and willing to donate to any patient in need.

If a match is made, there are two ways to donate. One way is through a peripheral blood stem cell donation, a nonsurgical outpatient procedure. The other is a marrow donation, a surgical, outpatient procedure that is performed in an operating room.

Only a small percentage of people on the registry will ever be called to be a match.

As she showed up to a registration drive held in a Brigham Young University LDS stake (against advice to stay away because of her compromised immune system), Robyn was touched to see hundreds of people sign up for the registry.

She didnt know a single one of them.

These kids didnt have a clue who I was, but they were willing to do something, Robyn said.

Whats next

Robyn received her brothers transplant at the end of May. Since then, shes had side effects like diarrhea, mouth sores down her throat, insomnia and nausea.

Shell be in the hospital for a couple more weeks. After that, if the transplant isnt rejected, shell have to be constantly monitored by an adult for 100 days. If all goes well, that should be it.

Her hospital room is filled with pictures of her family and has a large window that looks out to the mountain. But for now, shes not supposed to leave the unit.

Lots of pokes and prods and illnesses, I can handle that, Robyn said. But being away from my kids is hard.

She video chats with her kids at least twice a day and reads to them from the Harry Potter books before bedtime.

Shes learning to cross-stitch. Her current project, a quote from Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, reminds them that happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

Kevin is getting help taking care of the kids from family. On weekends, they make the drive up to Salt Lake City to visit Robyn.

For now, theyre focusing on staying positive.

We are trading 2017 so we can have the rest of our lives with her, Kevin said.

Continued here:
Gift of Life: Santaquin mom searching for a bone marrow match adds 1200 names to registry - Daily Herald

Last Updated On 10 June,201705:37 pm

Stem cells can be harvested from certain parts of the human body.

(Online) - The Lipogems technology has great promise, but experts say itll take time to assess how successful the new procedure isThe technology is ideal for patients with certain orthopedic conditions, such as painful joints including the knee, ankle, or shoulder with limited range of motion. Additionally, it can be used in soft tissue defects located in tendons, ligaments, and/or muscles to improve the biologic environment, said Dr. Brian Cole, professor of orthopedic surgery, and section head of the Rush Cartilage Restoration Center, in a press release.

They are believed to help the natural regenerative processes in the body.

Hence they have earned the nickname as mini drug stores based on their ability to secrete a spectrum of bioactive molecules and support the natural regeneration of focal injuries.

Stem cells can be harvested from certain parts of the human body, most notably bone marrow and adipose tissue (fat).

Harvesting bone marrow stem cells is a significantly more invasive and time-consuming procedure that is performed using general anesthesia.

Lipogems offers a novel approach to orthopedic stem cell treatments by using a persons own fat.

The procedure uses a small incision into an area of subcutaneous fat, from which a quantity of fat tissue is harvested and processed by the Lipogems apparatus.

The technology itself, which really is the device that processes the fat, creates a concentration of fat that has been cleansed of all the extraneous things like red blood cells and fibrous tissues, Cole told Healthline.

The concentrated stem cells within that fat tissue are then applied to the problematic joint or bone area.

Lipogems offers a streamlined procedure for stem cell treatment, but there is nothing new about the science itself.

The use of stem cells to treat a variety of conditions has been ongoing for some time now.

What were lacking is really good data at this point in the clinical setting, Cole said. There is substantial data in the laboratory suggesting that these cells may function in the way Ive described: reducing inflammation and so forth. But, we really dont have yet much in the way of good solid clinical data saying that definitively this is making a difference.

Instead, he would like those seeking orthopedic treatment to understand that Lipogems is just one part of a much larger and more complex suite of tools used by physicians.

It has to be taken into context of all the other possible treatment options, from simply icing down a swollen ankle, to changing your daily activity, to surgery.

The unfortunate thing is that people think, well this is the solution that can be used instead of, say, a joint replacement and no longer do we need to do surgery, said Cole.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Nonetheless, Cole and his team are still excited about the possibilities of the Lipogems procedure.

Using a readily available and easily accessible substance like fat as a source of stem cells could have far-reaching implications for procedures in the future.

Were optimistic and intuitively there is a good argument to be made that this is as good or better than any other source of stem cells, said Cole.

Read more here:
New technology uses body fat to help relieve joint pain - DunyaNews Pakistan

The BMT program at MedStar Georgetown is a joint effort with specialists from John Theurer Cancer Center and a key component of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only cancer program in the Washington, D.C. region designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a comprehensive cancer center.

"Once considered experimental, BMT is today's established gold standard for treating patients with a number of malignant and other non-malignant diseases of the immune system, blood, and bone marrow, including multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and acute and chronic leukemia. For some conditions, blood stem cell transplant can provide a cure in patients who have failed conventional therapies," says Scott Rowley, M.D., chief of the BMT program at MedStar Georgetown as well as a member of the John Theurer Cancer Center's Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation. "For some conditions, it can actually be a cure; for others, it prolongs survival and improves quality of life. Having performed 100 BMTs at MedStar Georgetown including allogenic transplantation illustrates the strength and maturity of our program achieved in rather short time."

MedStar Georgetown's program is also the only comprehensive BMT center within Washington, D.C. and southern Maryland with accreditation from the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) for adult autologous procedures, where the patient donates his or her own cells.

The BMT program at John Theurer Cancer Center is one of the top 10 transplant programs in the United States, with more than 400 transplants performed annually.

A BMT involves a two-step process: first, collecting bone marrow stem cells from the patient and storing them for future use. Then, a week or so later, patients receive high dose chemotherapy to eliminate their disease. The previously stored cells are reinfused back into the bloodstream, where after reaching the bone marrow, they begin repopulating and allow the patient to recover their blood counts over the following 2 weeks.

"Even though BMT is considered standard therapy for myeloma worldwide, in the United States fewer than 50 percent of the patients who could benefit from BMT are referred for evaluation," says David H. Vesole, M.D., Ph.D., co- chief and director of Research of John Theurer Cancer Center's Multiple Myeloma division and director of MedStar Georgetown's Multiple Myeloma Program.

"That's mostly due to physicians' concerns that a patient is too old or compromised from other health conditions like diabetes, cardiac disease or renal failure. But new techniques and better supportive care have improved both patient outcomes and the entire transplant process, extending BMT to more patients than ever before."

The MedStar Georgetown/Georgetown Lombardi Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant Program is part of a collaborative cancer research agenda and multi-year plan to form an NCI-recognized cancer consortium. This recognition would support the scientific excellence of the two centers and highlight their capability to integrate multidisciplinary, collaborative research approaches to focus on all the aspects of cancer.

The research areas include expansion of clinical bone marrow transplant research; clinical study of "haplo" transplants use of half-matched stem cell donor cells; re-engineering the function and focus of key immune cells; and the investigation of "immune checkpoint" blocking antibodies that unleash a sustained immune response against cancer cells.

"In this partnership, we've combined John Theurer's strength in clinical care with Georgetown Lombardi's strong research base that significantly contributes to clinical excellence at MedStar Georgetown. By working together, we have broadened our cancer research to offer more effective treatment options for tomorrow's patients," says Andrew Pecora, M.D., FACP, CPE, president of the Physician Enterprise and chief innovations officer, Hackensack Meridian Health. "This is one of many clinical and research areas that have been enhanced by this affiliation."

"Our teams are pursuing specific joint research projects we feel are of the utmost importance and significance in oncology particularly around immuno-oncology as well as precision medicine," says Andr Goy, M.D., MS, chairman of the John Theurer Cancer Center and director of the division chief of Lymphoma; chief science officer and director of Research and Innovation, RCCA; professor of medicine, Georgetown University. "Together our institutions have a tremendous opportunity to transform the delivery of cancer care for our patient populations and beyond."

ABOUT THE JOHN THEURER CANCER CENTER AT HACKENSACK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center is New Jersey's largest and most comprehensive center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, management, research, screenings, and preventive care as well as survivorship of patients with all types of cancers. The 14 specialized divisions covering the complete spectrum of cancer care have developed a close-knit team of medical, research, nursing, and support staff with specialized expertise that translates into more advanced, focused care for all patients. Each year, more people in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area turn to the John Theurer Cancer Center for cancer care than to any other facility in New Jersey. Housed within a 775-bed not-for-profit teaching, tertiary care, and research hospital, the John Theurer Cancer Center provides state-of-the-art technological advances, compassionate care, research innovations, medical expertise, and a full range of aftercare services that distinguish the John Theurer Cancer Center from other facilities.www.jtcancercenter.org.

ABOUT MEDSTAR GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is a not-for-profit, acute-care teaching and research hospital with 609 beds located in Northwest Washington, D.C. Founded in the Jesuit principle of cura personaliscaring for the whole personMedStar Georgetown is committed to offering a variety of innovative diagnostic and treatment options within a trusting and compassionate environment. MedStar Georgetown's centers of excellence include neurosciences, transplant, cancer and gastroenterology. Along with Magnet nurses, internationally recognized physicians, advanced research and cutting-edge technologies, MedStar Georgetown's healthcare professionals have a reputation for medical excellence and leadership. For more information please visit: medstargeorgetown.org/bmsct

ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH HACKENSACK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER Hackensack Meridian Health Hackensack University Medical Center, a 775-bed nonprofit teaching and research hospital located in Bergen County, NJ, is the largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services in the state. Founded in 1888 as the county's first hospital, it is now part of one of the largest networks in the state comprised of 28,000 team members and more than 6,000 physicians. Hackensack University Medical Center was listed as the number one hospital in New Jersey in U.S. News & World Report's 2016-17 Best Hospital rankings - maintaining its place atop the NJ rankings since the rating system was introduced. It was also named one of the top four New York Metro Area hospitals. Hackensack University Medical Center is one of only five major academic medical centers in the nation to receive Healthgrades America's 50 Best Hospitals Award for five or more years in a row. Becker's Hospital Review recognized Hackensack University Medical Center as one of the 100 Great Hospitals in America 2017. The medical center is one of the top 25 green hospitals in the country according to Practice Greenhealth, and received 25 Gold Seals of Approval by The Joint Commission more than any other hospital in the country. It was the first hospital in New Jersey and second in the nation to become a Magnet recognized hospital for nursing excellence; receiving its fifth consecutive designation in 2014. Hackensack University Medical Center has created an entire campus of award-winning care, including: the John Theurer Cancer Center; the Heart & Vascular Hospital; and the Sarkis and Siran Gabrellian Women's and Children's Pavilion, which houses the Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital and Donna A. Sanzari Women's Hospital, which was designed with The Deirdre Imus Environmental Health Center and listed on the Green Guide's list of Top 10 Green Hospitals in the U.S. Hackensack University Medical Center is the Hometown Hospital of the New York Giants and the New York Red Bulls and is Official Medical Services Provider to The Northern Trust PGA Golf Tournament. It remains committed to its community through fundraising and community events especially the Tackle Kids Cancer Campaign providing much needed research at the Children's Cancer Institute housed at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital. To learn more, visit http://www.HackensackUMC.org.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-theurer-cancer-center-and-medstar-georgetown-university-hospital-announce-100th-blood-stem-cell-transplant-300471445.html

SOURCE Hackensack Meridian Health

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John Theurer Cancer Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital Announce 100th Blood Stem Cell Transplant - PR Newswire (press release)

June 8, 2017 One example of STAT1 GOF Mutation phenotype. Credit: Hiroshima University

Researchers report the first-ever study assessing how patients with "gain of function" mutation of the STAT1 gene respond to stem cell transplantation. It involved 15 young patients from nine different countries, each suffering a range of complications caused by the gene's mutation.

Of these, only six survived a regime of stem cell transplantationwith five completely cured and disease free by the study's conclusion.

The study was carried out by Dr. Satoshi Okada (Hiroshima University), Professor Jennifer Leiding (University of Florida), Professor Tomohiro Morio (Tokyo Medical and Dental University), and Professor Troy Torgerson (University of Washington).

Dr. Okada, who first discovered the STAT1 gain of function mutation in 2011, says, "Overall, this result is disappointing but the fact that five patients were cured proves that treatment with stem cells can work, and we now need to learn from these 15 individual cases."

The STAT1 gene plays a vital role in the body's immune system. Rare mutations can lead to STAT1's over-activation (GOF) and autoimmunity.

While the majority of patients afflicted typically show mild to moderate symptoms involving fungal (mostly Candida), bacterial, and viral infectionsabout 10 percent of cases are severe and life threatening.

Until now, developing suitable treatments has been challenging; e.g. anti-fungal drugs temporarily treat the symptoms but not the source mutation, and immunosuppressive therapies often do more harm than good by knocking out already overburdened immune systems.

With only one confirmed case prior to this study of a sufferer being successfully cured using stem cell transplantation, researchers are keen to build an understanding of best practices in order to offer real hope for the typically young sufferers of this condition.

The 15 selected patients were sourced via an international appeal to transplant centers and consortiums. Their ages ranged from 13 months to 33 years at the time of treatment. Screening by HU researchers confirmed that each had the STAT1-GOF mutation, and that the mutation was the source of their ailments.

Treatment was carried out independently by centers around the world. It used chemotherapy to eradicate the host's bone marrowthe source of the damaging STAT1 mutation in these patients. Healthy stem cell cultures sourced from donors were then transplanted into the subjects with the aim of reconstituting their bone marrow to a mutation-free, disease-fighting state.

The researchers suspect three reasons for the low 40 percent success rate:

In response, the researchers have made several proposals for improving this treatment. Due to most of the patients having mild to moderate ailments, only those suffering from severe symptoms should undergo this treatment. In addition, the chemotherapy dosage should be reduced. Those who received low-dose chemotherapy reacted better.

However, a balance must be struck. Low-dose chemotherapy may not eradicate host bone marrow to the extent required for its reconditioning the chance of transplant rejection is thus increased. With this in mind, support treatment may be required to neutralize host antibodies and prevent attacks of introduced stem cells.

Finally, due to the relative success seen in younger patients, stem cell transplantation should occur at as early an age as possible. Due to recent advancements in STAT1-GOF diagnosis, early detection is now a very real possibility hopefully leading to greater success rates, and less suffering for those carrying this potentially devastating mutation.

Explore further: 'Smart' genetic library makes disease diagnosis easier

More information: Jennifer W. Leiding et al. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with Gain of Function STAT1 Mutation, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2017.03.049

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Stem cell treatment for lethal STAT1 gene mutation produces mixed results - Medical Xpress

The Lipogems technology has great promise, but experts say itll take time to assess how successful the new procedure is.

What if you could put that little bit of body fat around your midsection to good use?

A procedure called Lipogems utilizes a persons body fat as a source of stem cells to help treat arthritis and joint conditions.

At least thats the promise.

Lipogems was approved for widespread use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2016, and its already garnering a lot of attention.

Rush University Medical Center recently became the first sports medicine specialists in the Midwest to offer treatment with the device.

The technology is ideal for patients with certain orthopedic conditions, such as painful joints including the knee, ankle, or shoulder with limited range of motion. Additionally, it can be used in soft tissue defects located in tendons, ligaments, and/or muscles to improve the biologic environment, said Dr. Brian Cole, professor of orthopedic surgery, and section head of the Rush Cartilage Restoration Center, in a press release.

Read more: Stem cell therapies offering hope for MS patients

Stem cells work by growing and differentiating themselves into different cells in the body based on the site of injection.

They are believed to help the natural regenerative processes in the body.

Hence they have earned the nickname as mini drug stores based on their ability to secrete a spectrum of bioactive molecules and support the natural regeneration of focal injuries.

Stem cells can be harvested from certain parts of the human body, most notably bone marrow and adipose tissue (fat).

Harvesting bone marrow stem cells is a significantly more invasive and time-consuming procedure that is performed using general anesthesia.

Lipogems offers a novel approach to orthopedic stem cell treatments by using a persons own fat.

The procedure uses a small incision into an area of subcutaneous fat, from which a quantity of fat tissue is harvested and processed by the Lipogems apparatus.

The technology itself, which really is the device that processes the fat, creates a concentration of fat that has been cleansed of all the extraneous things like red blood cells and fibrous tissues, Cole told Healthline.

The concentrated stem cells within that fat tissue are then applied to the problematic joint or bone area.

The procedure can be completed in under 30 minutes.

Read more: Stem cell therapy a possible treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

Lipogems offers a streamlined procedure for stem cell treatment, but there is nothing new about the science itself.

The use of stem cells to treat a variety of conditions has been ongoing for some time now.

As Healthline reported earlier this year, stem cells have been touted as a breakthrough treatment for some time, but real proof of efficacy is still being researched.

The same is true for Lipogems.

What were lacking is really good data at this point in the clinical setting, Cole said. There is substantial data in the laboratory suggesting that these cells may function in the way Ive described: reducing inflammation and so forth. But, we really dont have yet much in the way of good solid clinical data saying that definitively this is making a difference.

He further cautions individuals thinking that the new procedure, or that stem cells in general, are a panacea.

Read more: Unproven stem cell treatments offer hope but also risks

Instead, he would like those seeking orthopedic treatment to understand that Lipogems is just one part of a much larger and more complex suite of tools used by physicians.

It has to be taken into context of all the other possible treatment options, from simply icing down a swollen ankle, to changing your daily activity, to surgery.

The unfortunate thing is that people think, well this is the solution that can be used instead of, say, a joint replacement and no longer do we need to do surgery, said Cole.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Nonetheless, Cole and his team are still excited about the possibilities of the Lipogems procedure.

Using a readily available and easily accessible substance like fat as a source of stem cells could have far-reaching implications for procedures in the future.

Were optimistic and intuitively there is a good argument to be made that this is as good or better than any other source of stem cells, said Cole.

Read this article:
New Technology Uses Body Fat to Help Relieve Joint Pain - Healthline

Patients with rare blood cancer brought back to normal The Hindu All the three patients who underwent bone marrow transplantation of matching stem cells from donors, including one from Germany, crossed 100 days which is considered an important milestone in the transplant process, said Padmaja Lokireddy, consultant, ... and more »

Visit link:
Patients with rare blood cancer brought back to normal - The Hindu

Updated June 09, 2017 10:59:15

Leukaemia patient Jake Cooper, 14, is desperately searching for the cure to his cancer, but his hopes of a life-saving fix now rest with strangers, not scientists.

Jake has chronic myeloid leukaemia and as his condition progresses will need a bone marrow transplant.

So why, when there are 29 million accessible donors on worldwide bone marrow registries, do so many patients, including Jake, struggle to find a match?

The answer is ethnicity, where your cultural background can turn your chance of survival into a desperate needle-in-a-haystack search.

Bone marrow transplants, sometimes called stem cell transplants, can be used to treat patients with cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

But first a suitable donor needs to be found and that in itself can be a months or years-long process, one that usually starts with a patient's siblings, Red Cross bone marrow donor centre operations manager Paul Berghofer said.

"There's a one-in-four chance that [any one] sibling will be a match," he said.

While those odds aren't bad, and obviously improve if you're from a big family, they don't always deliver a match.

Then, the search broadens to the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry and beyond that, to a global registry, but for many patients these offer little hope.

While donors of north-west European backgrounds are over-represented on the registries, other ethnic groups are desperately under-represented.

"The chance of finding you a matched donor who is not related to you is best with people of a similar ethnic background," Mr Berghofer said.

The process wasn't drawn out but there were a bunch of general health check-ups, the initial typing and there was a discussion about the process involved.

I was told I could stop anytime up until a point of no return, I think a week or two before the transplant. You can't pull out in the last week because the [recipient] will almost certainly die.

Part of the workup is self-administering a course of an artificial hormone for five days into the flesh of my stomach. By day four or five, everything ached - like growing pains or shin splints.

The procedure itself was sitting in a chair, sticking my arms out by my side and local anaesthetic [being injected] in the crook of both elbows. To prevent damaging blood and increase the flows, they use big needles, they were ridiculous. That's why you have the anaesthetic!

Then I just lay in a chair and listened to music for four hours.

The process wasn't painful or bad, just uncomfortable and a little bit cold.

I don't regret it at all, I'd definitely do it again - it helped someone and it might be their only chance.

For Jake, whose dad is Samoan and German, and his mum Australian and British, his "incredibly rare" DNA means, despite monthly checks of the global registry, there is no bone marrow match available to tackle the "monster" in his body.

"The condition is bad enough but if it came to him [urgently] needing the transplant, I'd have to say to him, 'there's nothing I can do, we don't have a match'," his mum Renee Cooper said.

Complicating Jake's search is the fact Samoa does not have its own bone marrow registry, meaning thousands of potential matches are missed.

"It drives me crazy, there's not a day I don't think about it that someone is out there [possibly] with the cure," she said.

"The most frustrating part is I could be walking past them in a shopping centre and not even know."

Ms Cooper started Jake's Quest for a Cure on Facebook, a page she hoped would be shared to spread Jake's search around the world.

She said a lack of awareness of the registry and misinformation about the donation process were hurting patients' chances of a cure.

"There are no advertisements on bone marrow, there's no education around it in schools the way there is with organ donation," she said.

"People hear bone marrow and they think, 'oh my God, they're cutting my bones out'. People just have no idea at all."

Mr Berghofer said in 80 per cent of cases, the donation process was done as a peripheral blood stem cell collection which was not dissimilar to donating blood.

"The donor gets a needle in one arm, the blood goes through the apheresis machine and filters off blood stem cells and returns the rest of the blood back into their other arm," he said.

Pamela Bousejean, founder of Ur the Cure, an organisation striving to boost ethnic diversity on bone marrow registries, said potential donors were "slipping through our fingers everyday".

"People don't even know the bone marrow registry exists and how easy it is to donate stem cells if you're called up. You're saving a life doing something so simple," she said.

Ms Bousejean launched her campaign for a more representative registry after her own search for a donor, when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2010.

After chemotherapy and radiation treatments failed, she was told her "last chance" was to have a stem cell transplant.

"But they also told me it was going to be difficult to find me a match because of my Lebanese background," she said.

"That was really hard to hear."

For the next six months while his sister waited for a life-saving match, Ms Bousejean's brother took matters into his own hands, launching a social media campaign to find a donor.

"You're stuck in this limbo state," Ms Bousejean said.

"You know the cure to my cancer is out there in someone else's body."

In many ways, the campaign was successful raising awareness of the need for ethnic diversity on the Australian and international bone marrow registries but it didn't deliver the adult match she had been hoping for.

Instead, a "plan b" treatment in the form of a cord-blood donation gave the marketing professional her cure and she went into remission in 2012.

Now, she is on a mission to improve education programs targeted at ethnic and Indigenous communities and boost opportunities to recruit ethnically diverse bone marrow donors.

"We can make some small changes that would make a big difference," she said.

Topics: blood, diseases-and-disorders, leukaemia, perth-6000, australia

First posted June 09, 2017 06:00:36

Read more:
Bone marrow transplants: When your heritage leads to a needle-in ... - ABC Online

This week alone in the news weve seen air strikes, suicide bombings and murders caused by hate. Violence over the hue of someones skin, the way they speak or how they dress. Hate-filled speech by neighbors at meetings and on Facebook. At dinner yesterday, my 8-year-old step-daughter asked her dad, Whats a bomb? My heart is heavy.

Its easy to forget that we are more alike than we are unalike. I offer to you a different perspective.

Six years ago my brother got the call he had Hodgkin Lymphoma, a cancer that starts in cells that are part of the bodys immune system. He was 28 years old. It started as a visible lump under his collar bone, and sometimes you wonder how can so much suffering be caused by such a little lump? And so my story begins.

About one year into his treatment, he reached remission, and from there he was required to undergo an autologous stem cell transplant (a transplant using his own stem cells) to replace his bone marrow and stem cells that were destroyed by chemotherapy and radiation. Fast-forward 10 or so months and my brothers cancer returned. This time the treatment plan had to change his body needed help actually fighting the cancer cells, rather than just a replenishment of normal blood cells. This time around, he required an allogeneic stem cell transplant (a transplant using the stem cells from a healthy donor) and as his sister, I needed to be tested to see if I was a tissue match.

This was all new to me and our family. You hear a lot about cancer. We all know someone who has it, if you dont have cancer yourself. But I knew nothing about stem cell transplants or what it meant to be a donor. First we had to find out if my brother and I were a match.

I received a kit in the mail and all I had to do was swab the inside of my cheek, place the swab inside a sealed bag, and mail it back to the hospital. A week or so later, my brother got the news from his doctor that changed our lives. I was, in fact, a match a near perfect match and we could move forward with his second stem cell transplant.

At this point in my story, youre probably thinking, Of course, youd be a match, youre his sister. I assumed so, as well. Read on.

On Aug. 12, 2016, my brother and I underwent our stem cell transplant at Dana Farber/Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. There are two different ways to donate stem cells peripheral blood stem cells (stem cells extracted from your blood after receiving five days of injections of a drug called filgrastim, used to increase the number of blood-forming cells in your bloodstream) and bone marrow (a surgical procedure where doctors use needles to withdraw liquid marrow from both sides of the back of your pelvic bone). Due to my brothers specific treatment plan, he required pure bone marrow, and my bone marrow was taken from my pelvis. Two liters worth of my bone marrow was processed at Dana Farber and then brought to my brother immediately, who received it via an IV drip.

So how does my story end? Why am I telling you all this?

My brother is thriving. My pelvis has healed. And we were absolutely blessed to find a match right within our family.

The reality is that fewer than 30 percent of patients with a blood cancer or blood disease will find a related-donor; the other 70 percent, thousands of patients with blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, sickle cell anemia or other life-threatening diseases, depend on the national bone marrow registry to find a match to save their life. Some day you or someone you love might depend on a complete stranger who might be a Muslim, a Republican, gay or straight. But it wont matter because from the inside, they will be the same.

I plead with you to remember that we are more alike than we are unalike, and to do something positive for humanity.

You can visit http://www.bethematch.org and join the Be The Match national bone marrow registry.

Or you can attend one of my in-person donor drives in Greenfield over the next few months. The first will be this Saturday, June 10, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Pints in the Park event at the Greenfield Energy Park.

If you are between the ages of 18 and 44, patients especially need you. You could be someones cure.

I note the obvious differences

between each sort and type,

but we are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

From Human Family, a poem by Maya Angelou

Ashli Stempel is a Greenfield resident and a member of the Greenfield Town Council.

Excerpt from:
My Turn: Do something within your power to save another life - The Recorder

TAMPA Researchers at the University of South Florida show in a new study that bone marrow stem cell transplants helped improve motor functions and nervous system conditions in mice with the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by repairing damage to the blood-spinal cord barrier.

In a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers in USFs Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair say the results of their experiment are an early step in pursuing stem cells for potential repair of the blood-spinal cord barrier, which has been identified as key in the development of ALS.

USF Health Professor Svitlana Garbuzova-Davis, PhD, led the project.

Using stem cells harvested from human bone marrow, researchers transplanted cells into mice modeling ALS and already showing disease symptoms. The transplanted stem cells differentiated and attached to vascular walls of many capillaries, beginning the process of blood-spinal cord barrier repair.

The stem cell treatment delayed the progression of the disease and led to improved motor function in the mice, as well as increased motor neuron cell survival, the study reported.

View original post here:
Mice with ALS improve with stem cell therapy - The Ledger

Vancouver surgeon and UBC professorRonald Lett is appealing tothe public forhelp in finding a bone marrow transplant for his wife Elizabeth Nega, who has an aggressive form of leukemia.

Nega, better known as Elsa, discovered that she had acute lymphoblasticleukemia in February and urgently needs a bone marrow transplant.However, the Ethiopian Canadian wife and mother of two has been unable to find a match because of the low number of African donors.

Ronald and Elsa are now reaching out to people of African descent to register as bone marrowdonors. They've started a website, match4elsa.com, as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts, to find Elsa and other African-Canadians life saving transplants.

"I love to live. I want to be with my kids. I want to smile again. I want to play with them again. If you save my life, you will save my whole family," said Elsa Nega in her video appeal for a donor.

Lett is the founder and international director of the charity, Canadian Network for International Surgery(CNIS). He met Elsa in Ethiopia while he was there training local doctors to perform essential surgeries.

After dedicating his life to helping others, Lett says being unable to help his wife in her time of need has been difficult.

"I helplessly watch as the love of my life suffers terribly, has devastating complications from her treatmentbut has no promise of a cure," said Lett.

"Transplant, which only works half the time, is our only hopeand all the news concerning a match for Elsahas been bad too."

Elizabeth Nega, Ronald Lett and their two children are running out of time to find Elsa a bone marrow donor. (Helen Goddard)

Since discovering that she had leukemia, Elsahas beenput through several rounds of chemotherapy, but after failing to go into remission, obtaining stem cells from a bone marrow transplant has become her only hope of recovery.

Her brother and sister in Ethiopia were her best chance, but neither were a match.

The larger issue in finding a donor for Elsa is the lack of diversity in the donor registry.

Of the 405,000 Canadians on the stem cell registry, only 800 have an African background, and none are a match for Elsa, according toChrisvanDoomwith the One Match Program.

Even among the 29 million people on the international registry, no match has been found.

Lett and Elsa's children, Lana, 8, and Lawrence, 6, have contributed to the effort.

They're in a video reading a letter appealing to Ethiopians around the world, including Canadian-Ethiopian R & B singerThe Weeknd, asking for help to save their mom.

In the meantime, Elsa's health is declining, and she's hoping for a miracle, even if it's not for her.

"If they save somebody, that's like a lotteryor a big blessing, you know.It's a big chance to get somebody to match to you and save your life.You know many people can't do this." saidNega.

People interested in registering to be a bone marrow donor can register at blood.ca,must be between 17 and 35 years old and in good health.

The test involves a cheek swab at the nearest clinicor a kit can be mailed out.

Link:
Vancouver woman's family pleading for help finding a bone marrow donor - CBC.ca

Dr Bishesh Poudyal of the Civil Service Hospital in Kathmandu is the doctor who carried out all 18 transplants. At Civil the cost per transplant is between Rs 400,000 to Rs 500,000. KATHMANDU, June 7:A total of 18 bone marrow transplants have been successfully carried out in Nepal by a single doctor in Kathmandu since 2012.

A bone marrow transplant is a medical procedure performed to replace bone marrow that has been damaged or destroyed by disease, viral infection, or chemotherapy. This procedure involves transplanting blood stem cells, which travel to the bone marrow where they produce new blood cells and promote growth of new marrow.

Bone marrow is the spongy, fatty tissue inside the bones. It creates the red blood cells that carry oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, white blood cells that fight infection, and platelets that are responsible for the formation of clots.

Dr Bishesh Poudyal of the Civil Service Hospital in Kathmandu is the doctor who carried out all 18 transplants. "I am going to carry out bone marrow transplants on another six patients in near future," said Poudyal, who was born at Jawalakhel of Lalitpur.

Dr Poudyal, who passed SLC 24 years ago from Adarsha Vidya Mandir, was inspired by his father to pursue studies in hematology and bone marrow transplant. After completing his MBBS from China and MD from India under government scholarships, he started working at the Bir Hospital. "I served there for two years at Bir Hospital as per the government rule for scholarship students," he said.

Then, Dr Poudyal left the Bir Hospital as he came to know that bone marrow transplant was not possible at Bir and joined Civil Service Hospital. He also practised at the Nobel Medical College Hospital at Sinamangal where he started bone marrow transplant in 2012. "As I came to know Nobel was charging patients between Rs 800,000 to Rs 1 million per transplant, I quit the hospital," he said.

At his initiation, the Civil Hospital started bone marrow transplant about a year ago. At Civil the cost per transplant is between Rs 400,000 to Rs 500,000. The transplant recepients ranged from 22 years old to 64 years. Two patients died after about nine months of transplant. "One died of tuberculosis infection and another died of disease complications," according to Dr Poudyal.

"Bone marrow is transplanted in cancer and other blood diseases. Bone marrow is transplanted in different ways-- by treating patients' bone marrow, using siblings' and parents' bone marrow and matched unrelated donor (MUD). "We have not transplanted bone marrow under MUD category," said Dr Poudyal. "MUD is a condition of matching gene with other persons. A person's genes match those of only one percent of the population of the entire world," he added.

There is no actual data of patients with bone marrow problems in the country. However, 400 to 600 patients visit Civil Service Hospital for treatment of acute lukemia and other blood cancer cases per year. "Forty to 50 percent patients of blood cancer recover fully while the recovery rate among bone marrow recepients is 70-80 percent," said Dr Poudyal.

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Nepal's sole bone marrow transplant doctor - Republica

Paul Spagnuolo is working on creating a drug with an avocado compound that targets cancer cells. (Paul Spagnuolo)

A Guelph food science researcher is getting $100,000 from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research to fund investigations into using an avocado compound as a possible treatment for leukemia.

Paul Spagnuolo discovered that Avocatin B, a compound mainly found in avocado pits can kill leukemia stem cells in 2015.

"Getting funds to do any type of research is a reason to celebrate," said Spagnuolo told CBC News.

The funding will further his research by allowing his lab to use better equipment and collaborate with cancer researchers from the University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Ottawa University and McMaster University.

Spagnuolo's lab tested more than 800 natural compounds for their ability to kill leukemia stem cells and discovered Avocatin B was the most potent and only targetedcancer cells.

Avocatin B kills leukemia stem cells by stopping fatty acid oxidation in the cells, a process necessary for the cancer cell to digest fat as a fuel source in order to live and grow.

"Our cells can utilize glucose primarily and some other parts, but leukemia cells are rewired so that if you inhibit the oxidation process, they will die," he said.

Spagnulo and his lab are now looking to develop a way to detect whether or not Avocatin B is circulating in the blood and bone marrow.

Leukemia cells live in the bloodstream or bone marrow, so it's important for the drug to make it to those parts to kill the cancer cells.

"We want to be able to detect our drug inside the blood so that we can understand how we can formulate products better to get our product into the blood," said Spagnuolo.

Moving forward, Spagnuolo's lab will have to report to OICR quarterly, it's a condition of the funding which is spread over two years and has the possibility of renewal for another two years.

"(It's) a lot more intense than I anticipated, but I think the key here is it's very results oriented," said Spagnuolo, "There's no complacency here."

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Pitting avocados against leukemia stem cells - CBC.ca

COUNTLESS lives across the world could be saved by an Oxfordshire familys appeal to find a bone marrow donor for their little boy.

Two-year-old Alastair Ally Kim has Chronic Granulomatous Disorder (CGD), a life-threatening condition.

He has now become the fourth person in the world to start an experimental gene therapy course at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In the meantime, his parents have spearheaded 200 international donor drives to find their son a match, signing up 7,000 would-be donors in the process - some of whom have since been matched with other patients.

Father Andrew Kim, 37, of Hinton Waldrist near Longworth, said: We want to use whatever momentum Allys story has to help someone else. We know that matches have come through our drives for other people. Its awesome that someone will benefit from all this.

On Thursday, May 25 family friend Cathy Oliveira organised a drive at the Oxford Universitys Old Road research building, signing up 80 staff members in a day.

Ms Oliveira said: When everything happened with Ally I wanted to show support in any way we could; this is directly beneficial not just for Ally but for others.

Allys CGD means his immune system is compromised and the tiniest infection could leave him seriously ill.

His only chance of a permanent cure is a bone marrow stem cell donation, with a match likely to be of Korean or East Asian origin.

In April the youngster and mum Judy Kim, 36, an Oxford University researcher, travelled to London for him to begin a pioneering new gene therapy treatment.

After a week of chemotherapy to wipe out Allys immune system, cells taken from him are modified in a lab and re-introduced to correct the disorder.

Mr Kim said: Bone marrow would give him back 100 per cent functionality and gene therapy is 10 to 15 per cent; its enough to live in the real world, and not be scared he will die every time he gets an infection.

It has been a roller-coaster of a year, but theres nothing to do but move forward. We are really excited at the thought of him being able to come home this summer.

Blood cancer charity DKMS supported last weeks donor drive in Oxford.

Senior donor recruitment manager Joe Hallet said: Around 30 per cent of patients in need of a blood stem cell donor will find a matching donor within their own family.

The remaining 70 per cent, like Ally, will need to find an unrelated donor to have a second chance of life, so events like these are crucial.

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Donor appeal for poorly toddler 'may have saved other lives' - Bicester Advertiser

As a third grade teacher at Ottawa Elementary School, Kelly Gianotti teaches students many important life lessons along with reading and math.

The most important lesson she has instructed was taught by example: how to save the life of a blood cancer patient.

Gianotti donated her stem cells in 2013 to help save the life of a blood cancer patient. The patient was in need of a bone marrow stem cell transplant and had no donor match in her family.

I had seen a flier at a local gym for a high school student who was looking for a match. That intrigued me. I went online to register, Gianotti said.

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A year later Gianotti learned she was a potential match, but not for the high school patient. She went through more testing and did the outpatient donation procedure.

Gianotti later found out her donation assisted MaryAnn Hastings, who lived near Boston, Mass. The two chatted via e-mail and were able to meet in 2016, when Gianotti traveled to Boston.

The lady I donated for died last February of a different type of cancer. I wanted to honor her and spread the word, Gianotti said, adding that Hastings family indicated she was able to give Hastings three extra years of life with her donation.

The donation experience motivated Gianotti to host the first DKMS bone marrow registration drive through Chippewa Valley Schools district. DKMS is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders, according to its website.

The goal of the drive is to help register potential donors. It will be held Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Cheyenne Elementary School in Macomb Township. Gianotti said she hopes to register between 100 and 200 potential donors.

Requirements to join the bone marrow registry are that the donor be in good health and between the ages of 18 and 55. The process involves filling out a form, understanding the donation methods and swabbing the inside of each cheek for 30 seconds with a cotton swab. Donors swab their cheeks in a circular motion.

There is no cost to register, although donations are accepted. The donations assist DKMS in covering the $65 registration processing fee.

According to DKMS, 70 percent of people suffering from blood-related illnesses rely on donors other than their families.

If selected as a match for a patient, there are two different methods of donation, according to the DKMS website.

According to the DKMS website, a donation method used in about 25 percent of cases is a one or two hour surgical procedure performed under anesthesia to collect marrow cells from the back of the pelvic bone using a syringe.

To obtain more information about the drive or to make a monetary donation, visit fb.com/cvsgetsswabbed. Those who want to join the bone marrow registry but are unable to attend the June 6 drive can register at dkms.org.

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Chippewa Valley Schools hosts bone marrow registration drive - The Macomb Daily

Multiple myeloma is cancer that involves our bone marrow with a specific cell called a plasma cell that patients can develop. Most patients will need a bone marrow transplant.

Patients needing bone marrow transplants dont have to travel far to receive this potentially life-saving transplant.

The actual day of the diagnosis was November 18th of 2015 and it was a diagnosis for multiple myeloma, said Steven Simpson.

Simpson was ready to fight from that day on. He learned from Dr. Kelly McCaul, the director of Avera Hematology Transplant Program, that he would need a bone marrow transplant.

There are many different types of transplant that we do. Theres basically an autologous transplant where patients would be their own donors for their stem cells and then theres allogenic transplant which are some sort of donor process. And so Steve has multiple myeloma. We would normally look at autologous transplant as the preferred pathway for patients with that disease, said Dr. McCaul.

Weve never had to leave anywhere other than here. This is it, said Simpson.

Simpson and his immediate family live no further than 20 minutes away from Avera McKenna so getting the transplant elsewhere was out of the question. But that didnt come without resistance from his insurance company.

Youre asking somebody to go three or four hours out of the way minimum for a period of time that could last anywhere from a week to whatever the process is. You lose your doctors. You lose the ability to have any local family support there as you need them and you dont really know what youre getting into. You just know what youre told, said Simpson.

Simpson and his insurance company worked together and was able to stay at Avera for his transplant.

I came in the day before scheduled for the transplant but left three hours after the transplant because I didnt have any reactions. Plus, we all knew that I had somebody available to watch me 24/7 for the period of time that we would have. The fact that you have your doctors here, your oncologist, your lab people, your nursing staff, everybodys here. They know who you are, said Simpson.

17 years ago when I first looked at this program one of the big things I looked at was the need in the community and it was felt from my perspective, and obviously Avera, that our need in the community was high. And it allows patients to stay within the community, close to family members, without having to drive four, five hours away, said Dr. McCaul.

Today, Simpson is well on his way to feeling like his old self, something he credits to staying close to home for his transplant.

For more information just call 877-AT-AVERA

More here:
Bone marrow transplant patient credits positive recovery to staying close to home - KSFY

COUNTLESS lives across the world could be saved by an Oxfordshire familys appeal to find a bone marrow donor for their little boy.

Two-year-old Alastair Ally Kim has Chronic Granulomatous Disorder (CGD), a life-threatening condition.

He has now become the fourth person in the world to start an experimental gene therapy course at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In the meantime, his parents have spearheaded 200 international donor drives to find their son a match, signing up 7,000 would-be donors in the process - some of whom have since been matched with other patients.

Father Andrew Kim, 37, of Hinton Waldrist near Longworth, said: We want to use whatever momentum Allys story has to help someone else. We know that matches have come through our drives for other people. Its awesome that someone will benefit from all this.

On Thursday, May 25 family friend Cathy Oliveira organised a drive at the Oxford Universitys Old Road research building, signing up 80 staff members in a day.

Ms Oliveira said: When everything happened with Ally I wanted to show support in any way we could; this is directly beneficial not just for Ally but for others.

Allys CGD means his immune system is compromised and the tiniest infection could leave him seriously ill.

His only chance of a permanent cure is a bone marrow stem cell donation, with a match likely to be of Korean or East Asian origin.

In April the youngster and mum Judy Kim, 36, an Oxford University researcher, travelled to London for him to begin a pioneering new gene therapy treatment.

After a week of chemotherapy to wipe out Allys immune system, cells taken from him are modified in a lab and re-introduced to correct the disorder.

Mr Kim said: Bone marrow would give him back 100 per cent functionality and gene therapy is 10 to 15 per cent; its enough to live in the real world, and not be scared he will die every time he gets an infection.

It has been a roller-coaster of a year, but theres nothing to do but move forward. We are really excited at the thought of him being able to come home this summer.

Blood cancer charity DKMS supported last weeks donor drive in Oxford.

Senior donor recruitment manager Joe Hallet said: Around 30 per cent of patients in need of a blood stem cell donor will find a matching donor within their own family.

The remaining 70 per cent, like Ally, will need to find an unrelated donor to have a second chance of life, so events like these are crucial.

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Oxford University staff join bone marrow stem cell donor drive for Oxford toddler Ally Kim - Witney Gazette