“Latest Stem Cells News”

Two scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have been awarded $16.7 million for stem cell research projects.
Dr. Irwin Bernstein and Beverly Torok-Storb received the federal funding from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Their award is part of a $170 million effort divided among 18 scientific teams.

Torok-Storb will work with Dr. Mortimer Poncz of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to develop molecular and cell-based therapies for a range of blood diseases, using an $8.2 million grant.
Bernstein will work with Edward Morrisey of the University of Pennsylvania to study how biochemical reactions inside cells affect cell development, using an $8.5 million grant.

from http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/10/05/daily41.html

Kim and Jay Case with their dog, Shiloh, at Citizen's Lake Campground in Monmouth on Wednesday morning. Kim won her battle with cancer because of an adult stem cell transplant

When Kim Case was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, doctors told her she had little chance of survival.

Months later when she was recovering from the disease, they changed their tune.

“The doctors called me their miracle patient,” Case said.

Case, who lives in Gaston, Ore. with her husband, Jay — who’s originally from Monmouth — was diagnosed in August 2004 with a rare form of cancer called NK T-cell lymphoma.

“I’m the only caucasian American to have had it,” said Case, a secretary and former substitute teacher.

The form of cancer is more common in Asia and the survival rate is minimal.

After radiation treatment and three rounds of chemotherapy, Case said the only option left was a stem cell transplant.

“I was willing to do anything,” Case, 48, said.

Stem cells serve “as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive,” according to the National Institutes of Health.

After a spinal tap that was testing a mini transplant with her own stem cells, doctors found the cancer had spread to other parts of her body. An adult stem cell donation was the next option.
Adult stem cells have been identified in many organs and tissues, according to the NIH. They can remain dormant for long period of time, “until they are activated by a normal need for more cells to maintain tissues, or by disease or tissue injury.”

The biggest worry for Kim and her family was finding a donor.

“These things usually take six months to a year,” she said. “I had found a donor within a week.”
Doug Cokinis, a 42-year-old married father from North Aurora, had seen a sign asking for donations and was a 100 percent match for Kim.

Kim, Jay and her caregiver, her 21-year-old son Bobby, had to move to Seattle, Wash. for the transplant.

She stayed at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington Hospital for 52 days.

Jay, a semi-retired contractor, bought a new truck and was making the three and a half hour trip back and forth from Oregon to Seattle every weekend for a three-month period.

“I put about 12,000 miles on the truck during that time,” he said.

After another chemotherapy session, the stem cell transplant took place in October 2004.

It took about a month before Kim re-gained some strength.

“It was a gradual, slow process,” she said. “I had to walk three or four times around my room without stopping before being allowed to leave the hospital.”

Able to leave the hospital after 52 days, Kim stayed in Seattle to go back in for occasional tests.

“They gave her a list of things she’d have problems with for the rest of her life,” Jay said.

So, the short period of time after that was nothing short of remarkable.

She was able to return home in February 2005, cancer free. She regularly had blood draws to make sure the cancer had not returned.

By June 2005, she was able to stop taking medication for side effects from cancer. She hasn’t taken any medication since then – something unheard of in cancer patients.

Kim maintained a positive attitude during her fight to conquer the disease.

“I really didn’t feel sick … I wasn’t ready to die,” she said.

The attitude had an effect on the nurses taking care of her as well.

A nurse brought her gifts one day because she “was always smiling.”

Kim and Jay encourage people to donate adult stem cells if they’re able. They said the process is easy. Those interested in donating should contact the main chapter of Red Cross (800) 733-2767.

“It’s an easy process,” Kim said. “They take blood to test for diseases. Once that’s clear, they put you on a list. Once they find a match, they give you shots to take for the cells to reproduce at a faster rate … most don’t know what to an adult stem cell transplant is, it’s not like a bone marrow transplant.”

Though adult stem cells differ from embryonic stem cells, Kim was supportive of embryonic stem cell research.

“I think the research is helping,” she said. “It’s amazing what it could do.”

She was also able to meet her donor recently.

“He started e-mailing me and we talked on the Internet for awhile,” she said. “We finally met in person. His daughter calls me Aunt Kim … he and his family are planning to visit us in Oregon sometime, too,” she said.

Considering all that had happened to her, Kim took no time in answering whether or not she thought her experience was, in fact, a miracle.

“One hundred percent miracle,” she said.

from Review atlas

Study May be Key to Unlocking a Cure

An article published in the Summer 2009 edition of Multiple Sclerosis Quarterly Report, a joint publication of United Spinal Association (www.UnitedSpinal.org) and the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS), highlights the positive initial results of patients who have improving neurologic function after receiving a stem cell transplant, despite no longer taking any MS medications.

The results are reported in a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored study called HALT-MS to confirm whether high-dose immunosuppression followed by autologous stem cell transplantation will prevent MS attacks in patients who are not responding to available treatment options and ultimately protect against the degeneration of nerve fibers.

The article, written by George H. Kraft, MD, MS, director of the Western MS Center in Seattle, Washington, and colleagues, reveals the promising outcomes of the first three patients entered into the HALT-MS Study, including a 27-year-old woman with an 8-year history of relapsing MS who was treated with five different MS drugs, but continued to have relapses.

The study involves wiping out the patient’s immune system through high-dose chemotherapy or other means, such as radiation, to destroy most blood cells and bone marrow. Blood “stem cells” with the capacity to generate new blood and immune cells are then transplanted into the patient. These stem cells can either be the patient’s own or those from a matched donor. Once the cells are transplanted, they repopulate the bone marrow and restart building all the cell types found in the blood, a process called “engraftment”. After transplantation, the patient would effectively have a “new” immune system that would not attack nerves in the brain and spinal cord as seen in MS.

Currently, there are approximately 400 patients with MS worldwide who have been treated with stem cell transplantation. Research demonstrates that patients with highly active forms of relapsing-remitting MS have responded best to treatment.

The Halt-MS Study is taking place at four centers in the US: The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/University of Washington Western MS Center; Ohio State University; Baylor College of Medicine; and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and is currently open to participants with severe relapsing forms of MS. For more information, visit HALT-MS Website

from PR newswire