Category Archives: Stem Cell Transplant

MAMBO for MYELOMA Awareness, Part 2 Pattie Daggett, a Multiple Myeloma patient @ Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ with her daughter, Ameliana, getting ready to begin her Stem Cell Transplant Collection Process. Pattie was one of... By: Mambo Myeloma … Continue reading →

Mark and Mindy Ammons lost their 2-year-old son, Christopher, in 1988 to neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer. In 2009, Mindy Ammons donated her own stem cells to a woman with cancer. And this weekend, the family's youngest son will prepare a bone marrow donor registry in memory of his oldest brother as an Eagle Scout project. Family photo Bone marrow donation is close to the heart for the Ammons family of Provo. Mark and Mindy Ammons lost their 2-year-old son, Christopher, in 1988 to neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer. In 2009, Mindy Ammons donated her own stem cells to a woman with cancer. And this weekend, the familys youngest son will lead a bone marrow registry drive as an Eagle Scout project in memory of his oldest brother. We are in the unique position of having been on both sides of the process, Mindy Ammons said. In the "Be The Match" flier created for the project, Will Ammons, 13, explains that Christophers only chance of survival was a bone marrow transplant, but sadly, no one in our family was a match, so he had to be his own donor. Christopher underwent treatment at the UCLA Medical Center where, after five … Continue reading →

Patients going off shore for MS treatment | Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News Sarah Tilbury's from Robe, South Australia TV Clip "My Story" in News on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) 7:30 South Australia Station posted on Sun 19 Oct 2014. She is in Chicago... By: DIAD0NU … Continue reading →

Move over stem cells. A different kind of cellular alchemy is allowing cells to be converted directly into other tissues to treat disease or mend injuries. Stem cells have long been touted as the future of regenerative medicine as they can multiply indefinitely and be turned into many different cell types. Ideally, this would take a personal approach a patient's own cells would be converted into whatever type of cell is required to fix their injury or treat their symptoms. Earlier this year, for instance, people with age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the West, had retinal cells made from their own stem cells injected into their eyes. Mature cells can be converted into stem cells by exposing them to a cocktail of chemicals that reverts them back to an embryonic-like state. Another set of chemicals is then used to turn the cells into the desired tissue type. Skipping the stem cell stage would be more efficient, says Andrew Yoo of Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and would reduce the chance that the new tissue could grow into a tumour a risk with stem cells because of their capacity to regenerate. Yoo has now managed … Continue reading →

Researchers are using stem cells to grow tiny three-dimensional human stomachs that are structurally similar to the real thing, helping investigators seek treatments for gastric diseases such as ulcers and cancer. Researchers carefully added growth hormones to embryonic or induced stem cells in a lab for as long as five weeks to encourage the development of gastric tissue, according to the findings published today in the journal Nature. The mini-stomachs, which even produce hormones that regulate the secretion of acid and digestive enzymes, may help discover therapies for diseases that affect as much as 10 percent of the worlds population. The researchers are experimenting with tissue from the mini-stomachs to use as grafts for treating peptic ulcers, said James Wells, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. Eventually they may be able to make larger organs that could be used for transplant, he said. The transplant of a whole stomach is a way off, but its within a reasonable time frame to generate in a petri dish pieces of stomach to patch ulcers, Wells said in a telephone interview. There is no reason to think that if we can do this in miniature that we … Continue reading →

Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at 12:39 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at 12:39 p.m. Jaimonee Hagins, 12, a seventh-grade student at Howard Middle School, needs a blood and marrow transplant to help battle the disease, which often has her in such deep pain she cannot attend classes. Understanding only too well the ravages of sickle cell anemia is her mother, Charlet Harrison, of Ocala. She and her brother Myron Harrison grew up with the condition. Sickle cell anemia is the most common form of sickle cell disease, an inherited disorder in which red blood cells are abnormally shaped. This results in painful episodes, serious infections, chronic anemia and damage to body organs. According to the National Institutes of Health, a blood and marrow stem cell transplant can work well for treating sickle cell anemia as it replaces faulty stem cells with healthy ones. Stem cells are found in bone marrow. According to Dr. Ali Nassar of Munroe Heart, A bone marrow transplant produces new cells. Donor to recipient genetically must be a close match. Only with identical twins is the match 100 percent. If the procedure is a success, it is considered a cure. I hope I … Continue reading →

Hamilton woman Angela Sunkel died last night after a four year battle with chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia. Her efforts to fundraise $1.3 million for a second stem cell transplant in Seattle meant she became a well-known figure in the Waikato and received huge support from people who never knew her. She had four and a half thousand Facebook followers on her page Bone Marrow for Life. This morning, her husband Raymond Sunkel posted on her page, ''Angie, last night a part of me died with you. I am completely and utterly broken, for you taught me love that I never knew existed and now you are gone.'' Details of Angela's funeral will be posted on the Facebook page. All funds raised for the stem cell transplant will go to the Leukaemia Foundation. Read the original here: Angela Sunkel loses battle against leukemia … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Researchers at UC Davis have found that the drug bortezomib effectively treats chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a common and debilitating side effect from allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants. The trial showed that bortezomib provides better outcomes than existing treatments and does not impair the immune response against residual cancer cells, or the graft-versus-tumor effect (GVT). Bortezomib helped a group of patients who desperately needed a treatment, having failed multiple different therapies, said UC Davis hematologist and associate professor Mehrdad Abedi, lead author on the paper. The drug fights chronic graft-versus host disease, and unlike other GVHD therapies such as steroid, cyclosporine or mycophenolate, it treats chronic GVHD without dampening the graft-versus-tumor effect, which can be critically important to help patients avoid relapse. In fact, because bortezomib is an anti-cancer drug, it potentially attacks cancer cells in its own right. The trial results were published in October in the journal Blood. Chronic GVHD strikes patients who have received stem cell transplants from donors, commonly called allogeneic transplants. Although the transplants are close matches, they are not identical, and donor cells can attack the recipient, damaging skin, lungs, kidneys and other organs, which can … Continue reading →

The clones are coming! The clones are coming! (Maybe.) Doctors have grown a retina in a petri dish using stem cells from a 70-year-old patients skin and successfully transplanted the retina to her eye at Japan's Riken Center for Developmental Biology. This marks the first time a transplanted organ was grown from skin cells from the recipient and not an embryo, The Globe and Mail reports. Until now, scientists have been mired in a debate regarding the use of embryonic stem cells to create transplant tissue. Using a patients own adult stem cells avoids that controversy and also reduces the chance the patient could reject the transplant. Stem cells hold the promise of curing many diseases, including macular degeneration and Parkinsons. However, there are risks associated with using adult stem cells. Scientists must turn regular adult cells into dividing cells, and there is concern that cells could turn cancerous after transplant. You only need one stem cell left in the graft that could lead to cancer, Dr. Janet Rossant told the The Globe and Mail. Rossant is chief of research at Torontos Hospital for Sick Children and past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. The Riken Center … Continue reading →

STORY HIGHLIGHTS (CNN) -- A ground-breaking cell transplant has allowed a paralyzed man to walk again, researchers announced Tuesday. Polish man Darek Fidyka, 38, had been left paralyzed from the chest down after a 2010 knife attack caused an 8mm gap in his spinal cord. An initial 13 months of rehabilitation followed by an additional 8-month program before the experimental treatment had not produced an improvement in his condition, researchers said. But two years after the 2012 cell transplant he can walk with the aid of a Zimmer frame, also known as a walker. Scientists at University College London (UCL) developed the treatment, which saw olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) from the nose transplanted to Fidyka's spinal cord. OECs are what allow the sense of smell to return when nerve cells in the nose are damaged. Surgeons at Wroclaw University in Poland led by Dr Pawel Tabakow injected the OECs above and below Fidyka's spinal cord gap, then used nerve tissue taken from his ankle to act as a bridge for spinal nerves to grow across, UCL said. The underlying idea is 'can we get something out of an area where repair works and transfer it into an area where repair … Continue reading →