Look North is a magazine published by the Northwell Health System. This publication features health and wellness information geared toward healthcare consumers in the Long Island and New York City region.
Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/720180
In the past, only a stem cell transplant from a perfectly matched donor could have cured Tyler. His hope for a cure via this treatment swiftly faded — no related or unrelated donor whose tissue type matched Tyler's could be found. Fortunately, his medical team had another option, one that had never before been attempted at Cohen Children's: a stem cell transplant from a haploidentical (half-matched) donor. The donor would be Tyler's mother. Another Way Forward Previously, haploidentical stem cell transplants weren't an option for MDS patients because of the risk of severe graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a condition caused by the mismatched donor cells attacking the patient's organs, leading to severe diarrhea, skin rash and liver inflammation. If researchers could find a way to minimize the risk of GvHD, the pool of potential donors could expand. Northwell Health scientists did just that. (See "Opening Doors for Family Donors" below.) Tyler's prospects appeared brighter with haploidentical stem cell transplantation as an option, but fear of the unknown remained. "We were so scared, but everyone at Cohen Children's, especially the Child Life specialists, were so amazing, telling me to keep faith, stay positive," Ms. Thomas said. "I trusted their expertise. When they drew blood from me for the stem cell transplant, I prayed to God everything would work out." On Oct. 29, Tyler received an intravenous infusion of his mother's stem cells at the Gambino Medical and Science Foundation Stem Cell Transplantation Unit at Cohen Children's. A week later, his Cohen Children's pediatric hematologist-oncologist, Joel Brochstein, MD, started seeing positive effects. "We saw signs of engraftment [growth of new blood-forming cells], which was very encouraging," Dr. Brochstein said. "His white blood count normalized, and his platelet count also returned to normal within two weeks." Sixteen days after the transplantation, Tyler went home. Childhood Is Calling For patients with leukemia or MDS undergoing stem cell transplantation, the future is often bright — they enjoy high survival rates. For Tyler, however, the future can wait because the present is joyful enough. According to his mother, he is focused on his favorite pastimes, including playing video games, and looking forward to learning everything he can during the next school year — things Tyler and his mother could easily take for granted, if the past year hadn't shown them how precious those things are. Cohen Children's recently became the first hospital to o"er this treatment for kids. Visit bit.ly/ StemCellsCCMC for more information. for those patients who lack a fully matched donor," Dr. Brochstein said. "Haploidentical stem cell transplantation removes the requirement for a perfectly matched donor, allowing us to perform transplants across tissue-type compatibility barriers." The most exciting thing about haploidentical stem cell transplantation is its potential to help children with a variety of blood disorders, not just MDS. "We have an opportunity to treat more children with this innovative approach," Dr. Brochstein said. "We plan to broaden the use of haploidentical transplantation to include children with nonmalignant, yet serious, blood disorders, such as sickle cell anemia, thalassemia and aplastic anemia." CohenChildrens.com 15 COHEN CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER hematology