Blood marrow greatly needed
South Asian community seeks donors
By LAURA GEGGEL
P-I REPORTER
Sameer Bhatia first blamed his symptoms, which arrived just before
the monsoon season in India, on the 100-degree weather and humidity.
"I started feeling nausea, lack of appetite and my heart was racing
when I had just climbed a flight of stairs," the Mercer Island native
said. He ordered heart tests and instead found that his white blood
cell count had rocketed. He was diagnosed with leukemia.
If he wanted treatment in the United States, he would have to fly to
America that night, his doctor said.
The Bhatias booked the last two tickets on a flight that May evening
and arrived at a hospital in New Jersey 40 hours later. Bhatia had a
bone marrow biopsy the next day to confirm his diagnosis.
The doctor verified two things: Bhatia had acute myelogenous leukemia
and he needed a bone marrow transplant.
But a bone marrow transplant can be an insurmountable challenge for
people of South Asian decent -- they have just a 1 in 20,000 chance
of finding a compatible donor, according to the National Marrow Donor
Program. Caucasians have a 1 in 15 chance of finding a match.
Of the 6 million people registered in the donor program, just 1.5
percent are South Asian.
At 31, Bhatia is used to traveling for work but not for health. He
grew up on Mercer Island, graduated from Mercer Island High School in
1993 and attended Stanford for his undergraduate degree. He and his
wife, Reena, live in San Francisco and routinely fly to Mumbai
(formerly Bombay) where they manage a leg of their company, which
makes cell phone games.
The entrepreneur faced his prognosis like a business challenge. He
joined Vinay Chakravarthy, a South Asian in Boston who also has
leukemia, in a national bone marrow registry drive.
Now back on Mercer Island and living with his parents while he
receives treatment at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,
Bhatia is encouraging Seattleites to register in hopes he will
improve his odds for survival.
In the past two months, 20,000 more South Asians have registered
nationwide. Bhatia and Chakravarthy hope to raise that number to
50,000.
Registering is as easy as giving a cheek swab. Each person has human
leukocyte antigens, or HLA, inherited from their parents. These
proteins are found on white blood cells and throughout the body. If a
foreign substance such as a bacterium enters the body, the immune
system will identify it as an enemy and order an attack. Likewise,
when tissue or cells from a donor are transplanted to a patient,
differences in antigens can trigger an immune assault.
By simply rubbing a swab on the inside of a cheek, researchers can
collect cells for DNA typing, enabling matches between the registry's
database and the patient.
Patients typically find matches 30 percent of the time within their
family. The other 70 percent look for matches among the 10 million
registered donors worldwide, according to the donor program.
"All minorities have a worse chance of finding a donor because
participation amongst minorities isn't as high," said Bryan Fung, the
rare-donor representative at Puget Sound Blood Bank. Many countries,
including India, do not have a national marrow donor program on the
same scale as the U.S.
"In Puget Sound, the Indian community is spread out over many miles,"
said Gita Gisin, an organizer with the bone marrow drives. "It makes
it difficult to rally people, so we are organizing drives with
companies like Microsoft that have large South Asian populations.
Jeff Young, a Seattle friend of Chakravarthy'
a "meaningful commitment" to register and follow through with the
procedure. Young, 28, is not a fan of hospitals, but he registered to
show solidarity.
"I won't be called unless it's to save a life. It seemed like
something I ought to do because I'm a member of a rare donor
category," said Young, whose father is Chinese and whose mother is
from Western Europe.
Bhatia's leukemia is in remission, but if he doesn't find a match
within the next few weeks, he will need more radiation and may opt
for a cord blood donation, in which blood stem cells can be obtained
from umbilical cord blood. Cord blood transplants are a relatively
new but promising procedure.
"If we can't find an optimal match from a healthy adult donor,
umbilical cords are a good option because the requirement for HLA
matching is not as stringent for umbilical cord blood as the need for
matching of unrelated adult blood and marrow stem cells," said Dr.
John Hansen, a UW professor and clinical researcher at the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Either way, Bhatia can't wait to find a match.
"I don't have a choice not to live a long life because I have to go
out and thank everyone for their help," Bhatia said.
HOW IT WORKS
Once a match is found, the donor receives several shots that mobilize
the blood stem cells into circulation, and in five to six days, the
blood stem cells are collected on a cell separator machine. Most of
the red blood cells and plasma are returned to the donor.
Alternatively, the donor may give marrow cells, which are collected
by insertion of needles into the pelvic bones. Donors typically
report feeling sore for a few days after the procedure, as if they
had just returned from the gym.
The recipient prepares for a longer procedure. Depending on the
disease, the patient may receive intense chemotherapy or radiation to
eradicate malignant cells, or may receive a less intense treatment
designed to suppress his or her immune system for the transplant. If
all goes well, the new bone marrow, blood and immune system will be
capable of killing the remaining cancer cells.
DONOR REGISTRATION
SATURDAY: Seattle Net IP Network of Indian Professionals, 5-9 p.m. --
Golden Gardens Park, 8498 Seaview Place N.W.
SUNDAY: Bothell Hindu Temple and Cultural Center, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. --
3818 212th St. S.E., Bothell
MONDAY: Seattle Southeast Seattle Senior Center, 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. --
4655 S. Holly St.
AUG. 4: Seattle Gujarati Cultural Society Picnic, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. --
Lake Wilderness Park (Shelter 1), 22500 S.E. 248th St., Maple Valley
Walk-in appointments are available at Puget Sound Blood Bank. Visit
psbc.org for more information or call 800-398-7888.
ON THE WEB
Visit helpsameer.org to find local bone marrow drives and to learn
more about Sameer Bhatia and the bone marrow registry.
For an earlier story on cord blood transplants,
goto.seattlepi.
P-I reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 206-448-8397 or
laurageggel@
http://seattlepi.
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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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