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New Method Of
BMT Offers Hope
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Researchers from the Weizmann
Institute in Israel and Perugia
University in Italy have devel-
oped a method that may signif-
icantly improve the chances for
people with leukemia to receive
potentially life-saving bone mar-
row transplants from unmatched
donors.
Normally, successful bone
marrow transplantation (BMT)
requires that certain character-
istics of the donor and recipient
immune systems be closely
matched in order to avoid rejec-
tion and other complications.
However, fewer than 30 percent
of leukemia patients who might
benefit from BMT have a
matched donor among their sib-
lings and only 3 to 5 percent
manage to find such a person
among other relatives.. Although
the establishment of large BMT
registries has led to an increase
in transplants between unrelat-
ed individuals in the past few
years, many patients still fail to
find appropriate donors.
It is hoped that by eliminating
the need for a very close donor-
recipient match, the new ap-
proach will now make BMT
available to all people with
leukemia in need of the treat-
ment. However, even if further
studies support the effectiveness
of the approach, it will take some
time before it becomes widely
available.
The technique was developed
over the past eight years by Pro-
fessor Yair Reisner of the Weiz-
mann Institute's department of
membrane research and bio-
physics and Professor Massimo
Martelli of the University of Pe-
rugia's Policlinico Monteluce in
Perugia, Italy.
A report on the first 17
leukemia patients treated with
the approach in Professor
Martelli's clinic appeared in the
Dec. 1 issue of "Blood." The donor
marrow — drawn from family
members who were not entirely
compatible with the recipients
— successfully implanted itself
in 16 of the 17 patients. Although
all the patients treated had been
in terminal stages of leukemia,
six were alive and free of disease
three to 16 months after treat-
ment.
BMT is generally undertaken
in patients who are otherwise (
doomed because its severe com-
plications can themselves be
lethal. In this treatment, patients
receive powerful drugs and ra-
diation to wipe out their immune
systems and the diseased bone
marrow. Afterward, they are giv-
en an infusion of marrow, which
contains stem cells, precursors
of all the cells in the blood. In
leukemia — a cancer-like disease
characterized by blood cell ab-