Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 26, 1993 TAG: 9302260228
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
TECH STUDENT BEATS LONG ODDS TO FIND BONE-MARROW DONOR
Robbie Hope just got lucky.The 21-year-old Virginia Tech senior had been hoping for a bone-marrow donor ever since he was diagnosed with leukemia on Christmas Eve 1991.
The odds against finding a donor with matching blood marrow can range from one in 100 to one in 1 million, medical experts say.
Hope beat the odds.
"We're just living proof that prayer works," his father, Robert Hope, said Thursday.
The Hopes, who live in Herndon, received word that a prospective donor had been found for Robbie at 12:10 p.m. last Friday.
They do not know if the donor, whose name was in a national computer file of people willing to donate bone marrow, has been contacted or has agreed to go through with it, Hope said. They will not be told the donor's name or where he lives.
Marrow is taken from the donor's hip through a needle, Robert Hope said. He said the donor is usually not kept in the hospital overnight, but may be sore the next day.
"The only thing we know is that a match has taken place" Hope said.
The Hopes were just about to leave for Blacksburg when the call came. Last weekend was parents' weekend at Phi Kappa Sigma, Robbie Hope's fraternity.
The Hopes waited until they arrived in Blacksburg to tell their son, so they could do it in person.
"He put his head down," his father recalled. "Tears fell down. He just shook. He said, `The hard part starts now.' It was wonderful to be able to hug him."
Leukemia is a form of cancer in which immature white blood cells appear and begin to multiply rapidly in body tissue, eventually spilling into the bloodstream and infiltrating vital organs. Its cause has not been determined.
Hope, a senior majoring in finance, needs bone marrow for a procedure doctors believe could cure his leukemia, his father said.
The procedure involves large doses of drugs and radiation sufficient - presumably - to destroy the cancer. It also would wipe out Hope's existing bone marrow, which is diseased as well, his father said.
A bone-marrow donor would provide a cup or so of his or her own marrow, to be injected into Hope's blood stream following his treatment.
The marrow would find its way to Hope's bones, where it would begin to produce new marrow to replace the old, Robert Hope explained.
Bone-marrow donors are matched with patients through the National Marrow Donor Program in Minneapolis, established in the late 1980s.
Though the program has the names of some 750,000 potential donors in its computers, the odds against a match of marrow types in any one person's case are high, program officials concede. Still, more than 1,500 donors have been matched with patients since the program began, and efforts to enlarge the list of donors are ongoing.
Further information about the donor program is available by calling its toll-free hotline at (800) 654-1247.
Efforts to contact Robbie Hope Thursday were not successful.
In a recent interview, he said he was undergoing chemotherapy to control the spread of leukemic cells in his body. He said his condition varies daily.
"Some days you can't tell that I have cancer," Hope said. `I feel fine and I'm running around playing basketball and doing normal stuff. And then other days. . . . It's just harder than others. It just gets difficult." Hope said he sometimes suffers extreme fatigue, headaches and soreness in his joints.
Hope said his chances for a successful operation were 50 percent if a donor was found before June.
If all goes well, the procedure will take place in several weeks at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, his father said.
Robbie Hope will be entirely vulnerable to disease once his own bone marrow is destroyed, and he will have to remain isolated in an antiseptic environment until the new marrow begins to form, his father said. The entire procedure will take months.
Hope's mother, Mary Poague Hope, plans to quit her job as a nurse and take an apartment in Seattle during that time, Robert Hope said.
Much of the medical bill for the $250,000 procedure will be covered by insurance, though related costs - such as the temporary apartment - will not, Hope said.
Members of Phi Kappa Sigma said the news that a donor has been found for their fraternity brother made for an emotional weekend.
"I cried when I found out," said Bobby Zeiller, the fraternity president. "It's something I'll never forget."
The fraternity has rallied around its brother from the start, sponsoring a fund-raiser in April with TCBY Yogurt that raised $12,000.
Zeiller said another fund-raiser probably will be held this spring.
Randy Udavcak also contributed information to this story.