Transplant with umbilical cord blood

liver411

Chickasha man undergoing transplant with umbilical cord blood

2002-04-15

By The Associated Press







CHICKASHA, Okla. - Doctors will use umbilical cord blood, which is rich in stem cells, to try to save the life of a man with leukemia.

Surgeons plan to use the blood to give Howie Jackson a bone marrow transplant within two or three weeks. He first must undergo blood tests to make sure he is healthy enough for the transplant.



Blood from umbilical cords can build new immune systems for adults with leukemia, offering a potentially lifesaving treatment for the many patients who cannot find suitable bone marrow donors.



An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 Americans die each year while awaiting a bone marrow match.



During the operation, Jackson first will receive high doses of chemotherapy and radiation so his body won't immediately reject the cord blood. Then he'll receive a transfusion.



He's waited months for a transplant.



"I can handle all the puking, the losing the hair, the losing another 10 pounds," Jackson said. "It's the waiting that's hard. The physical part, once I know what I need to do, that's easy."



Jackson and his wife, Kimberly, knew each other as children in Fort Cobb and attended college in Chickasha. They were married in July 2000.



A week after their first anniversary, Jackson began running a fever. Soon he was being tested for AIDS and hepatitis, and he eventually had a bone marrow biopsy. That's when he learned he has acute lymphocytic leukemia, a disease that usually strikes young children and the elderly.



He underwent chemotherapy, which kills any cells that divide rapidly, cancer, hair cells, skin, cells in the stomach, digestive tract and mouth, and each kind of blood cell.



Jackson said the support of his family, his church and his wife helped him survive.



"I wouldn't want to go through this with anyone else," he said. "I feel sorry for people who didn't marry their best friend."



Kimberly said they would have split up had they not hugged and cried together.



"You have to learn to love one another and communicate and talk through problems to get through anything," she said.



Doctors knew Jackson needed a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.



None of his family was a marrow match. The family waited a few months before making a public plea for help. Two days after an article ran in the Chickasha Express-Star, doctors found an umbilical cord donor.



"I told my wife this is why we had to wait: God wanted us to tell people about this," Jackson said.



Until recently, stem cells drawn from umbilical cord blood have been reserved mostly for treating children. Because an umbilical cord contains only one-tenth as many stem cells as a marrow donation, experts believed there was too little tissue to reconstitute the immune defenses of an adult.



But new research shows that because the umbilical cord cells proliferate so rapidly, they can be used to treat adults.