
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200547
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

NEWBORN'S BLOOD TO BE TRIED TO SAVE TOT'S LIFE

Doctors have decided to make a 4-year-old Virginia Beach boy the first leukemia patient to receive a blood transplant from umbilical cord blood.

The decision was made this week when medical authorities elected against trying to save the life of Michael Sancilio by using his 11-week-old sister in a bone marrow transplant, a procedure considered too risky at her age.

"We would never put a donor, any donor, at risk to obtain bone marrow for someone else," Valerie Mehl, spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, said Thursday.

"We don't feel like we can risk the baby," said Denise Sancilio, the children's mother. "The doctors don't see any major problems [with a blood transplant]. They can't guarantee it because they don't know, but they think everything should work out OK.

"We really have no choice. We have to do what we have to do to save him. It's a hard decision, but we're looking at two children here."

Michael's blood transplant is to be performed Aug. 10 at Johns Hopkins.

The parents were considering using Christina Sancilio as a bone marrow donor after tests last week revealed that Michael and Christina have different blood types, making a blood transplant potentially dangerous for their son. The blood was collected at the Caesarean birth of Christina in May.

But encouraging results from tests earlier this week indicated Michael will not reject Christina's blood. Michael has an unusually low level of antibodies in his Type B blood that normally would attack Christina's Type A blood after the transplant, doctors said.

The transplant has been performed only three times before, all on anemia patients. Never have the blood types been different. A transplant for a leukemia patient is scheduled for an Ohio family in September in Paris. In that case, the blood types also differ.

Doctors believe they should move swiftly with Michael's transplant because his leukemia has suddenly begun to advance. They could not wait for Christina to get old enough to serve as a donor, they said.

"We can wait till Christina gets older, and then there's no guarantee that Michael would be around," Denise Sancilio said.

If the blood transplant is unsuccessful, doctors may re-evaluate Christina as a bone marrow transplant donor later.

by CNB