These are my favorite stories to post. 22 year old Tyler Colosimo, diagnosed with leukemia, has received stem cell transplants from umbilical cord blood which are greatly improving his condition. He is one of roughly 13,000 patients who are unable to find suitable bone marrow donors, including blood relatives. Without biologically matched donors these patients have a very slim chance of surviving this disease. That is why umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants are becoming a welcome alternative:

Transplants of stem cells from umbilical-cord blood have been around for nearly 20 years, and they work well in children who can’t find an optimal match.

In such transplants, the patient’s blood cells — including the diseased ones — are first killed off by radiation and chemotherapy, then the donated stem cells are transplanted and begin producing new cells.

The cord-blood stem cells don’t have to match the recipient’s tissue as well as those from bone marrow. And the blood is readily available from 45 cord-blood banks around the world.

Adults, like Colosimo, have a harder time with these treatments because they are bigger and need more stem cells than children do to replace the ones that are killed off. Lucky for them Dr. Colleen Delaney, a Hutchinson Center oncologist and researcher, thinks she may have solved the problem:

Before transplant, the cord-blood stem cells are placed in a special culture that stimulates them to reproduce quickly.

The technique draws on the research of Dr. Irwin Bernstein, a Hutchinson Center pioneer in learning how stem cells develop.

Delaney has expanded the number of blood stem cells 150-fold in just 17 days. That reduces to 15 days the amount of time a patient is most vulnerable to infection. Scientists at other institutions have tried similar technology but increased the cells only fourfold.

“This can open up a whole new donor pool for people who can’t find donors,” Delaney said.

The research is still young, but hopeful:

Colosimo is only the third patient to have the experimental treatment. A 42-year-old San Francisco man has fared well since his transplant a year ago, though he now is battling a viral infection. And six months after treatment a 30-year-old woman is healthy.

The treatment is only in its first phase of research, to make sure it is safe. This phase will involve about 12 more patients over the next two years. If the treatment goes well, another trial involving many more patients and other medical centers will follow.

I found this story early this morning and was excited to get it up before Wesley Smith did – he’s always ahead of the game – but, alas, I got preoccupied and am now a few hours behind him – as usual 🙂