Cord blood helps in the treatment of leukemia in adults
69-year-old Renata M. became the first adult patient diagnosed with "myeloid leukemia", who underwent stem cell transplantation from umbilical cord blood in the clinical practice of the German University of Erlangen.
Myeloid leukemia is a type of blood cancer in which there is an abnormally rapid proliferation of myelopoietic blood cells in the hematopoietic (myeloid) tissue of the red bone marrow.
At the end of July 2010, the director of the German Clinic of Hematology and Therapeutic Oncology, Professor Anreas Makensen, and Dr. Wolf Roesler performed transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells isolated from 2 donor umbilical cord blood samples to a 69-year-old patient.
5 months after a full examination of Renata, Professor Makensen believes that "the patient is highly likely to be cured of her illness." This is a serious success. Cord blood stem cell transplantation is a common procedure in the treatment of blood cancer in children. And only recently, this therapy has been used for adult patients. Only about 20 such transplants took place in Germany in 2009. At the same time, 2 samples of umbilical cord blood are used, since adults have a large body weight and they need a larger number of hematopoietic cells for transplantation.
"It's great that everything turned out so well in Renata's case," says Dr. Roesler – cord blood stem cells are immunologically more tolerant than bone marrow stem cells, so it's easier to find suitable donors." It was not possible to find a suitable bone marrow donor in Renata's family or in the international registry. Therefore, the doctors decided to perform a stem cell transplant for Renata from 2 combined donor cord blood samples. "This is the first cord blood stem cell transplant for our clinic to an adult patient, and the fact that it was so successful, anyway, borders on a real miracle for us," Professor Makensen notes.
Before the transplant, Renate M. underwent standard chemotherapy, which could not defeat leukemia.
Five months after the transplant, Renata was discharged from the clinic home. At the moment, she feels well and is receiving supportive medication therapy.
Source: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft, 09/29/2010: Erste erwachsende Krebs-Patientin profitiert von NabelschnurbluttransplantationPortal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to the materials of the press service of the ISC
20.12.2010