windsor toddler with rare leukemia needs stem cell donor
the little girl’s only chance is a stem cell transplant, and no one in her family is a match.
the study, published in blood advances and the largest of its kind to date, used umbilical cord blood to treat 44 children with varying non-cancerous diseases. umbilical cord blood is a potent source of hematopoietic stem cells — cells that are able to form red and white blood cells in the patients. due to their ability to develop into different types of cells, this treatment can be used to address many different types of disorders.
“we wanted to offer a uniform concept to a wide array of diseases,” said dr. paul szabolcs , the chief of bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapies at upmc children’s hospital and principal author of the study. “we successfully reduced the intensity of chemotherapy and nevertheless, we were still able to engraft all our patients.”
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this more moderate procedure is promising for conditions where the standard intensity regime poses a barrier to bone marrow or cord blood transfusions. more than half of the patients in the study had a form of leukodystrophy — a genetic disorder that leads to the destruction of the protective coating of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord, according to the national organization for rare disorders .
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three year survival rate after the standard chemotherapy preparation for umbilical cord blood transfusions for individuals with leukodystrophies ranges from 49 per cent to 77 per cent depending on their health at the time of the transfusion. the reduced-intensity approach reported a three year survival rate of 94 per cent.
about 70 per cent of patients who need stem cells or bone marrow transplants have to rely on an unrelated donor to find a match, according to the university of british columbia medical journal . this can create accessibility concerns for ethnic minorities. a 2012 study calculated that match rates for unrelated donors ranges from two per cent for poc to 46 per cent for caucasians.
since 2012, canadian blood services has extended campaigns to communities with low match rates to increase the presence of donors. the concern still remains, however. cord blood offers a hopeful alternative.
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emjones@postmedia.com | @jonesyjourn