Congratulations to Dr. Peter McSweeney of Rocky Mountain Cancer Centre in Colarado for their successful double cord blood transplant for an adult! Sheila Gannon was pregnant when she was diagnosed with leukemia and chances of survival was only 20%. Given very few options due to the lack of a bone marrow match, her doctor obtained 2 units of umbilical cord blood stem cells in order to make up the necessary cell numbers.
From her video testimony (check it out on the right hand side of the page), she is doing well, apparently in remission and getting back to normal life. At least she is able to spend time with her newborn baby son now that she's had her treatment. It must have been tough on the family.
Stem cell bankers: if one unit isn't enough, then combination of cord blood units may be performed to make up the cell numbers. The main point is "the more cells the better".
I have yet to hear of someone saying that one bag of cord blood was too much and only a small portion of it was used for their therapy. To date, everyone uses everything they have in the bag.... and when one bag is not enough... add another bag of matching stem cells! In Malaysia, we have some rather unscrupulous people who tell others that by storing a unit of cord blood stem cells in 5 vials instead of in 1 bag, that it can be used 5 times, for your mum, dad, grandpa, aunty, uncle and yourself. This has yet to be proven true and until such time, remains a myth. Anyone promising this should be asked for a letter defining the exact promise.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment