Marrow Transplant

SAN FRANCISCO -- The University of California at San Francisco has given the green light to a controversial experiment in which a man will be injected with bone marrow from a baboon in the hope the animal's immune system will help him fight the AIDS virus.Clearance by medical committees evaluating the safety and ethics of the experiment means that preparations can begin for the procedure on volunteer Jeff Getty, a 38-year-old Oakland AIDS activist who has battled critics and the Food and Drug Administration to win approval for the test.

Q: At the time of my operation for breast cancer, the pathology report showed that the cancer had spread to a large number of lymph nodes under my arm. Because the cancer has spread, my doctor has told us that the standard treatment offers less than a 40 percent chance of living for five more years.I have heard that treatment involving a bone marrow transplant offers a better chance of survival than the usual form of therapy. Do you agree?A: There is no clear answer to your question at the present time.

Q: One of the men who works with me has just been hospitalized to get a bone marrow transplant for anemia. I have heard of treating anemia with iron or vitamins, but would like to know what kind of anemia requires a bone marrow transplant.A: Anemia is defined as an inadequate number of red blood cells made by the bone marrow, which also manufactures platelets and most types of white blood cells. Some types of anemia can be treated with iron-rich diets and supplements. But when bone marrow is overrun with excessive numbers of white blood cells (as in leukemia)

When two of the great singers of our time, Jose Carreras and Marilyn Horne, sing together tonight at Wolf Trap for the benefit of leukemia-related foundations, the extraordinary concert will have personal significance for me. Twenty-five years ago I was one of the first leukemia marrow-transplant donors.Both singers have volunteered for personal reasons. Miss Horne's father died of leukemia. A marrow transplant in 1987 enabled Mr. Carreras to survive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A quarter-century ago when my sister contracted this same leukemia, it was a quick death sentence.

Jason Talbot, 19, brother of U.S. Olympic speed skater Kristen Talbot, has shown steady progress after the bone marrow transplant from his older sister on Jan. 11 at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Jason Talbot has aplastic anemia, a rare and potentially fatal condition that attacks the bone marrow and slows production of red and white blood cells. According to Jason Talbot, his white blood cell count has risen from 41 to 500 after chemotherapy treatments designed to kill his white blood cells so they would not clash with the transplanted cells.

An article in the Oct. 31 Carroll edition of The Sun should have said that Dr. Ruth Kantor provides support, but is not a board member of Catastrophic Health Planners. Also, Abrael Fox's name was misspelled.The Sun regrets the errors.Louis E. Yeager wants to help the medical community care for the whole person. He knows that a positive patient surrounded by a supportive, calm environment often heals quicker than others.For people who have terminal illnesses, it could mean the difference between life and death, said Mr. Yeager, a Finksburg resident.

BOSTON -- Contrary to their earlier assurances, Paul E. Tsongas' doctors now say that he suffered a recurrence of lymphoma in 1987, less than a year after undergoing an experimental bone marrow transplant, and was treated with an additional course of radiation for the cancer.Mr. Tsongas said in an interview Monday that he did not recall his doctors saying that a biopsy of a lymph node from his armpit in the summer of 1987 showed cancer, as the doctors say they did.Mr. Tsongas, who is the first known cancer survivor to run for president, has remained free of lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, for five years.

In football, it's called piling on. In life, it's called adding insult to injury.In the case of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Maryland and its relationship with Judy Marsh of Pasadena, let's call it a callous disregard for a human life.The insurance company has told Marsh, once again, that it will not pay for the cancer treatment she got at Duke University Medical Center.The first time around, the Blues insisted that Marsh's request for a bone marrow transplant -- her only chance for survival, her doctors said -- was cooked up by Dr. Quack.

Five-year-old Michael Sancilio stood in front of the television set yesterday, gently smacking its side as he stared into its flashing blue screen, trying to get the attached Nintendo game to work.He acted like he was at home -- and in a way he was.For eight months of the past year, Michael and his mother have stayed at 635 W. Lexington St. -- the Baltimore Ronald McDonald House -- while he undergoes treatment for leukemia at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Yesterday, the house had a homecoming party for Michael and the house's other residents, volunteers, board members and contributors.

At about 8 o'clock this morning, doctors at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., plan to transplant bone marrow into Anissa Ayala, a 19-year-old woman who is dying of leukemia.The marrow will come from her baby sister, Marissa. Their parents say they conceived Marissa to provide bone marrow to save Anissa's life.Doctors and ethicists say this is the first time a family has publicly admitted conceiving a child to serve as an organ donor. But many others have done so privately, conceiving babies to provide bone marrow for siblings and relatives or even, in one case, a kidney.