Help Wanted for Ma Lan
Ma Lan was happy with her life. She is 37, has a 5 year-old bright and beautiful daughter, works in a big pharmaceutical company in Chicago, and has a loving husband who has just landed an almost perfect job. Many would say Lan has a good life. Yet, fate suddenly changed his mood for Lan. She got leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow, where the body's blood cells are manufactured. The disease leads to the production of numerous immature white blood cells instead of healthy mature ones, bring down the immune system and leave the victim prey to infection.
The cause for such abnormality is due to a rare rearrangement of Lans chromosomes - Philadelphia chromosome or Ph - inside one of her bone marrow cells. Because of Ph, doctors say that Lans only hope of cure is bone marrow transplant (or more specifically, Periphery Blood Stem Cell PBST transplant), as soon as possible. A race with time starts: Lan and her family and supporters are searching for the only person who can save her: someone with exactly the same bone marrow type. SOSs have been dispatched around the world by e-mail and a Ma Lan Web page has been set up as an operation headquarter.
A well-matched donor is important to the success of bone marrow transplant. The search for a donor begins with a blood sample, and a test for Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) proteins on the surface of white blood cells is used to match patients and donors. Because HLA is a genetic trait that is inherited, if there is someone out there who can save Lan, he or she is likely to be Chinese. The odds of finding a non-Chinese with matching bone marrow are remote. So far, Lan is not lucky.
Should the ideal donor be identified, PBSC donation will take place at an apheresis center. To increase the number of blood-forming cells in the bloodstream, donors receive daily injections of a drug called filgrastim for five days before the collection. The donors blood is then removed through a sterile needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells. The remaining blood is returned to the donor. There are little side effects for donor, and in general there is no need for hospital stay for donors.
In the meantime, the recipient goes through intensive chemo- and radiation therapy to destroy the entire bone marrow -- cancerous cells and healthy ones alike. The donated PBSC is injected into a vein. From there, it finds its way into the bone. It then begins to regenerate, taking one year to fully develop. At least that is the hope. But even if a perfect match is deemed to be found, there is still the risk of failure with graft-vs-host disease where the bone marrow attacks the patient's body tissue if the match is not perfect.
Lan was diagnosed to have Leukemia in early April, when she suddenly had a severe case of swollen legs. Her weak condition prevented her husband from taking the new job, which is located in Florida. Her month-long hospitalization and the following frequent visits to hospitals for chemotherapy further prevented her husband from finding another nearby job. Lan will be out of job soon due to her disability. She is in dire need of helps, most essential a matching donor.
LEUKEMIA AT A GLANCE
The disease starts with a genetic change in a single white blood cell in the bone marrow.
The cell turns malignant and reproduces itself, overwhelming healthy cells, attacking the body's blood-producing organs and causing anemia, infection and internal hemorrhaging.
Early warning signals can include a swelling of the spleen, general tiredness, bruising easily and shortage of breath.
Without immediate medical help, leukemia can kill within weeks.
Initially, it is treated with anti-cancer drugs, principally chemotherapy.
In most cases, a transplant is the only long-term cure.
Up to 40% of transplant recipients die within two years.
The "all-clear" does not usually come within five years.
