Category Archives: Stem Cell Transplant

GOLTRY, Okla. A Goltry-area woman is back on Oklahoma soil after traveling to Milwaukee to give her brother a special birthday present. Jeni Sumner was the only match among family members tested to donate stem cells to her younger brother, who was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia last year. Ed Dees cancer went into remission last October but returned earlier this year. Sumner said Dees doctors felt a stem cell transplant would be the best treatment. Sumner spoke by phone about the events of the past week, as she prepared to return to Oklahoma on Thursday morning. The transplant began at 2:07 p.m. Tuesday Dees birthday and took about an hour, she said. We had a little birthday party for him and then he got my present, Sumner said. Prior to the transplant, Dee went through chemotherapy and had a conditioning treatment, which Sumner said entailed the doctors wiping out his immune system and blood levels. Sumner had to give herself injections over four days to make her bone marrow produce more stem cells and push them into her blood. Those went really well, she said. The stem cell retrieval process was on Monday. See the original post: Special birthday … Continue reading →

Vivian Campbell, the guitarist for Def Leppard and former guitarist for Ronnie James Dio and Whitesnake, was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma. He plans on receiving a stem-cell transplant after a summer tour with Kiss. In an interview with the Daily Herald Campbell said that he has been battling the disease since last year with a high-tech chemo treatment. At least I have health insurance, he joked with the Herald. He also stated his best form of therapy has been playing on stage every night. According to Cancer Center, Campbells high-dose chemotherapy is the first step. Stem-cells are taken from the patients body blood, harvested, frozen and then stored until the chemotherapy is finished. The stem-cells are then given back to the patient intravenously, to travel to the bone marrow and produce healthy new blood cells. Def Leppard will be out on tour with Kiss all summer long. The 42-date outing began on Monday in Utah, and will make its way through the West coast, mid-west, then East coast. The tour will conclude in Texas on Aug. 31. Image courtesy of INFevents.com See the article here: Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campell getting stem-cell transplant … Continue reading →

By Jim Kasuba The News-Herald Twitter: @JKasuba Elizabeth Disney (left) turned out to be a suitable blood stem donor for her sister, Brittany, who is afflicted with Burkitt lymphoma, considered to be an extremely rare disease for a young woman of only 23. Photo courtesy of Donna Smith RIVERVIEW Battling a rare cancer has been a rough road for Brittany Disney, but the worst may be behind her. The good news is that a suitable stem cell donor has been found and the transplant surgery went well. The not-so-good news is that theres a long recovery period and shes still in a lot of pain. Donna Smith, a close friend of the family, said the young woman underwent stem cell replacement on June 6. There was a one in four chance that a sibling would be a match, Smith said. (Her sister) Elizabeth had five out of six markers to be a stem cell donor for her. Disney, 23, was diagnosed late last year with stage four Burkitt lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in which cancer starts in immune cells called B-cells. Recognized as the fastest growing human tumor, Burkitt lymphoma is associated with impaired immunity and is rapidly … Continue reading →

Night before stem cell Transplant June 11, 2014. By: Jeberl1962 … Continue reading →

JEHAD HATU has had chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant and a 13-hour operation during his two-year cancer fight. But the 26-year-old says living with stage three testicular cancer has not left him disheartened. Instead, it has given him the push to follow his dreams of launching a craft beer business. When the Evening times first told Jehad's story in November 2012, he had just completed a course of chemotherapy and was preparing for surgery. However, the former bar and restaurant worker's health deteriorated and medics feared he would never recover. Jehad, who lives in Glasgow's South Side, said: "It's just one of those things. Sometimes life throws you an unexpected curveball." After four months of lower back-ache, he was diagnosed in August 2012 with the illness, which had spread to his lymph nodes, his liver, his intestines and his lungs . Following his second chemotherapy course he underwent a stem cell transplant, and last october doctors performed surgery to remove the tumours from his body. the surgery was supposed to last seven hours - but he was under the knife for nearly 13 hours after doctors discovered there were more lumps than they thought. Some tumours were too close to … Continue reading →

Five years ago, local doctors told Penny Garrett that a miracle was the only way she would survive the aggressive cancer attacking her body. She found that miracle a thousand miles away in Houstons state-of-the-art University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. After running a gauntlet of chemotherapy and surgeries that spared her from one rare form of the disease, Garrett now faces a stem cell transplant to help her ward off another form of the disease ravaging her bloodstream. Garrett, of Damascus, Virginia, was just 39 years old when first diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare, aggressive malignancy of the soft tissue growing inside her uterus. Doctors here first thought she had a fibroid tumor, but its rapid growth proved otherwise. We werent even thinking about cancer. I went in to set it [surgery] up in December while my kids were on Christmas break, so I could recover while they didnt have homework. When I went into the office, my doctor said this is growing too fast to be a fibroid tumor; we have to do surgery tomorrow. I had to go to the hospital to check in, get X-rays and lab work. It was pretty devastating to be by … Continue reading →

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Robert Waddell says he's glad the stem cells that healed him came from "a guy who was 50 years old" and not a human embryo. As a Catholic, Waddell opposes the destruction of embryos and didn't want to rely on embryonic stem cells to cure his kidney disease. But he avoided this moral dilemma by getting bone marrow stem cells from a friend who donated a kidney as part of a University of Louisville study. "It has nothing to do with embryonic stem cells," said Waddell, a 47-year-old father of four. "That made it a lot easier." Recent strides in stem-cell research show adult stem cells to be ever-more-promising, many scientists say, quelling the controversy steeped in faith and science that has long surrounded embryonic stem cells. In fact, University of Louisville researcher Scott Whittemore said the debate is almost moot. "Realistically, (many scientists don't use) the types of stem cells that are so problematic anymore," he said, adding that adult stem cells can now be reprogrammed to behave like embryonic stem cells. "The field has moved so fast." In addition to these genetically reprogrammed adult cells - known as induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells … Continue reading →

As dozens of men toured a brewery, tasted beer and swabbed the inside of their cheeks at Calgarys Village Brewery on Saturday, Al Carpenter was at home recovering from a stem-cell transplant. For weeks, Village co-founder Jim Button and Carpenters brother Steve had been organizing a Swab-a-Thon event in an effort to locate a stem cell match for Carpenter, who is a longtime friend of Buttons and an Ottawa father who has a rare form of leukemia. On Friday, the day before Village was set to host the donor drive targeting men aged 18 to 35, Carpenter was in hospital undergoing a stem-cell transplant after a near-perfect match was found. The 49-year-old married father of two girls under 10 was diagnosed last December with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a rare blood cancer that usually strikes children. The fact Carpenter found a stem cell match in the days before the Calgary event only emphasizes just how important Canadian Blood Services OneMatch stem cell and bone marrow donor program is, said Button. Now it becomes a conversation about the fact that out of 22 million people (worldwide in the registry), he didnt have a match, then all of a sudden, one day, something … Continue reading →

Three-year-old Gaurav Bains spent almost six months recovering from a stem cell transplant. His proud parents released the footage through the Birmingham Mail to encourage people to join the bone marrow register This is the priceless moment a Midland family feared they would never see. Brave toddler Gaurav Bains takes his first steps after a lifesaving stem cell transplant. The three-year-old spent almost six months recovering from the operation but was recorded as he learned to walk all over again. His proud mum Gurprit said: It was overwhelming seeing him walk it was just as precious as when he took his first ever steps. He still needs physiotherapy because his muscles tightened as he spent three months in a hospital bed. The touching family footage showed Gaurav, from Tipton, wobbling from side to side as he regained his independence. Gurprit and her husband Sunny filmed it last month at the family-owned business, Bains Supersave. They released it through the Birmingham Mail in a bid to boost the number of volunteers joining the bone marrow register. Recent figures claimed the West Midlands was among the worst areas of the country for new recruits, with just 0.66 per cent of residents on … Continue reading →

Stem cell transplant from donor in Germany saves Kellys life By Debra Downey,Senior Editor Kelly Barber waited a full day before finally tapping the send button that would connect him with the woman in Germany who saved his life. Kelly was worried about what he should say, how he should say it and the reaction hed get from a female 20 years his junior thousands of miles and an ocean away. But Kelly knew he had to reach out. He couldnt just simply let the womans amazing gift go unrecognized. She saved my life. Theres no question about it. I can never thank her enough, but I wanted to meet the person who saved my life, said Kelly. A father, husband and soon-to-be first-time grandpa, Kelly remembers well the day he was diagnosed with lymphoma. It was Dec. 31, 2007. Stomach cramps that developed shortly after his Boxing Day meal continued to get worse. Kelly could stand the pain no longer and went to emergency. I knew what (lymphoma) was. I had a cousin pass away at the age of 38, and a good friend and co-worker, said Barber. But I was in a certain amount of shock because we … Continue reading →