Stem Cell Donors

March 23, 2010

Donna Brown/Patient: “ I have an eleven year old to live for that is my number one priority.”

Donna Brown’s number one priority for living is Justin, her son.

Donna Brown/Patient: “ This is him at the hospital with Minnie Mouse.”

But, Donna might not get to see him grow up because she suffers from lymphoblastic leukemia, a blood cancer. Many people die of this disease, even after chemotherapy, because their disease learns how to hide from the immune system.

Now, University of Florida researchers have found a way to treat blood cancers using stem cells from donors who are not perfect matches with their family members, a process known as haplomatching.

Dr. Christopher R. Cogle/UF physician-scientist: “Unfortunately, a lot of patients do not have a good match, and with smaller family sizes it is harder to find a brother or sister that is a good stem cell match. For that reason, we developed a way that we can use other family members like parents or children that can be a stem cell donor for a transplant.”

UF researchers are coaxing stem cells from half matched family members to work inside Donna’s blood.

Charles Brown/Donna’s brother: “I lost my father to cancer, he died in my arms and I didn’t want to lose my sister. I wanted to do something myself, so me being able to donate my blood and my bone marrow to her, it works out great.”

Researchers will try to determine if this combination of stem cells will build a stronger immune system in Donna that will destroy blood cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.

Donna hopes this new treatment will be successful. Her son Justin suffers from the same blood cancer. He may one day need the same treatment for survival.