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Study: Sibling umbilical blood transplant cures sickle-cell kids
Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, September 21, 2007
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Children with sickle cell disease were cured following umbilical cord
blood transplants from their siblings, according to findings reported
Thursday in Washington, D.C., by doctors from Children's Hospital
Oakland.
Of 43 youths across the country who received transplants from
compatible siblings, 90 percent were cured, said blood specialist Dr.
Bertram Lubin, senior vice president of research at Children's
Hospital.
The children in the study ranged in age from 2 to 15. They suffered
from either sickle cell disease or thalassemia. About 1,000 babies
are born annually in the United States with sickle cell, an inherited
disorder affecting red blood cells. Thalassemia, a hemoglobin
abnormality, causes anemia that can range from mild to severe.
According to estimates, about 1,000 people in the United States have
the condition.
"It's a remarkable thing being able to cure a genetic disease," said
Lubin. "These kids have a new life."
The results were reported at the 35th annual convention held by the
Sickle Cell Disease Association of America and the National
Institutes of Health.
One of the youngsters in the study was Matthew Damm, who was born
with thalassemia and needed a transfusion every few weeks starting
when he was 6 weeks old. He also had a needle planted in his stomach
nearly every night to draw excess iron from his body.
Two years ago, he underwent a transplant of stem cells from the
umbilical cord of his baby sister, Hannah. He is now an energetic 7-
year-old who occasionally tussles with his little sister but mostly
is grateful to be healthy.
"He's cured! He's doing wonderfully,
who moved her family from San Diego to the Bay Area during the months
that her son was being treated at Children's Hospital Oakland. "He
doesn't talk much about it. But this summer, he told his
grandfather: 'Grandpa, do you know that Hannah saved my life?' "
Matthew, like the other children, was treated through the hospital's
sibling donor cord blood program, the nation's first and largest that
exclusively banks newborn cord blood for a sick sibling.
According to sickle-cell specialist Dr. Yutaka Niihara, a UCLA
professor and researcher with the Los Angeles Biomedical Research
Institute, stem cell transplants started about 15 years ago. One
limitation, he said, is the difficulty in finding donors - about half
of siblings also have sickle cell disease, making them ineligible as
donors, and only 1 out of 4 siblings is found to be a tissue match.
"There's only a 12.5 percent chance with siblings that a transplant
can be done," he said.
The typical life span of people with sickle cell disease is 43 years
for men and 48 years for women, he said.
"This is a very difficult disease," he said. "If (the treatment)
succeeds, the patient can enjoy a normal life span."
E-mail Elizabeth Fernandez at efernandez@sfchroni
This article appeared on page B - 12 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.
f=/c/a/2007/
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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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