ivin Welt

Health

Changing Focus

A Jewish bone marrow registry is expanding its target audience.

RUTHAN BRODSKY
Special to the Jewish News

B

one marrow transplantation
can help patients with a
widening variety of dis-
eases.
The problem, however, is that
while Caucasian patients may often
find a suitable, unrelated donor,
minority patients must go through a
more rigorous and extensive search
process.
Recognizing this need, the Brandon
Weiss Bone Marrow Registry in
Farmington Hills will now concen-
trate on expanding the number of
minority volunteers in its database.
Arthur Jay Weiss founded the
Brandon Weiss
Bone Marrow
Registry in
1985 while
seeking a com-
patible donor
for his 4-year-
old son.
Brandon suf-
fered from
aplastic ane-
mia, a rare dis-
ease in which the bone marrow starts
to die and not produce red blood
cells.
"Hundreds of people in the metro-
politan Detroit area volunteered to be
tested to see if their bone marrow was
compatible with Brandon's," says
Weiss. "We weren't able to find a
donor but I didn't want those efforts
to go to waste. We maintained the list
of volunteers because they may have
compatible bone marrow with other
children and adult patients through-
out the world who were also seeking
donors.
"My son died, but our hope was
that the registry we founded could
help others who may not have to suf-
fer."
The Brandon Weiss Registry
joined the national and international
bone marrow registry system. As it

6/2

2000

102

Golf Benefit

To raise funds for the registry,
which operates from contri-
butions, the Brandon Weiss
Bone Marrow Registry is
hosting its first annual golf
classic. The event takes place
on Monday, June 26, at the
Links of Pinewood.
For information, call the
registry, (248) 855-5715.

or Rules

otential bone marrow
donors must be between 18
and 55 years old and have no
history of hepatitis, heart dis-
ease, cancer or AIDS.
A standard consent form is
signed, allowing the registry
to include the potential
donors genetic tissue type in
its confidential, computerized
files for future matching.
Blood is drawn at a laboratory
or by the donor's physician.
If the individual is found
to be a first-level match with
a patient needing a trans-
plant, die donor proceeds to a
second and third blood test to
insure compatibility with the
patient.
To extract the marrow,
light general anesthesia is
used. Then 2-3 percent of the
donor's marrow is harvested
from the hip area via special
needles. A donor may stay in
the hospital one night.
For information on
becoming a donor, call the
Barbara Ann Karmanos
Cancer Institute, (800) 527-
6266; or the Brandon Weiss
Bone Marrow Registry, (248)
855-5715.