Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 14, 1990 TAG: 9007140222
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
Michael Sancilio's rare form of childhood leukemia is advancing rapidly. Doctors had pinned their hopes on an experimental treatment that would have transplanted cells grown from the umbilical blood of his baby sister.
Wednesday, tests revealed the two children's blood was compatible in every way except blood type - dashing any hopes of a normal transplant.
Now researchers are trying to come up with a way to make the transplant work.
Barring that, the Sancilio family will have to decide whether to risk the life of 10-week-old Christina Grace to save her brother. A bone marrow transplant from the baby theoretically is possible, but doctors are concerned about the risks to Christina from the anesthesia used in the operation.
Michael will go to Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore this weekend to test the mixing of the blood.
"They do have a team of doctors around the country putting their heads together. . . . I just don't know if there's an answer out there. We only have a couple of weeks," said Michael's mother, Denise.
The test results will be sent to researchers at Indiana and Duke universities who are working on ways to remove the incompatible elements of the blood cells grown from Christina's umbilical blood.
The experimental treatment hopes to use special cells found in the umbilical blood of newborns to defeat Michael's disease. The cells, called stem cells, form bone marrow in newborns. Scientists hope that transplanting the cells into Michael will have the same effect.
If researchers are not able to find a way to remove the incompatible elements from the blood, doctors said the only recourse is bone marrow transplant.
Doctors said they believe Michael cannot survive more than a few months without the transplant.
by CNB