This section was last modified on Sunday April 27, 1996.

The Open Reading Frame is an open forum to bring up issues. This section was written by Annie Fortunato. All comments should be directed to the e-mail form.

Can you help someone survive Leukemia?

atg...Karen Doyle is a young woman who needs a bone marrow transplant if she is to survive the leukemia which threatens her life. She is, unfortunately, one of many. But Karen has an added difficulty: she has an unusual background - part Korean and part North American. Her friends and family are asking anyone of similar background to please get the blood test which will determine if you are a bone marrow match for Karen. While we are all hoping that a bone marrow match will be found for Karen, there a re many other people, many young children, who suffer from the same thing. The only way to maximize their chances for survival is to have as many people as possible tested for a tissue match.

Getting tested is simple and fairly painless. All it requires is to have some blood drawn. This can be done at any Blood Bank, usually free of charge. The results of your test will be entered into a national registry which is checked regularly by physi cians caring for sufferers of leukemia who need a bone marrow transfusion. We have it particularly easy as there is a testing site right here on campus. The fourth floor of the Harkness Pavilion houses a Blood Drive which operates from 9am to 4pm. Here , you can be tested for a tissue match and give some blood if you are up to it.

If you are interested in news about Karen Doyle's case, check out her World Wide Web site at http://www.cosmix.com/karen/

Below are a few answers to questions often asked about bone marrow donation. They were collected by Mike Doyle, Karen's brother. Please consider being tested. It could save a child's life, perhaps Karen's.

Q. "ARE BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT DANGEROUS OR PAINFUL FOR THE DONOR?": A. The doctor I spoke with about it assured me that the procedure is relatively painless. Basically, in the event a proper match is found, and the potential donor still desires to donate, arrangements are made for the procedure at no cost to the donor. The donor goes in to the hospital, is sedated, and has syringes of marrow extracted from the femur. Once done, the donor either leaves the hospital the same day or remains overnight for observation. Some have no pain from this procedure, others describe the pain as being equal to being "kicked by a horse." The donor is not in any medical danger from the procedure.
Q. "WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF RACE ON BONE MARROW DONATION?": A. Bone marrow matching is done by HLA phenotype. The closer two individuals are in ethnic origin, the more likely their HLA codes are to match up (Siblings are usually the best match). More complicated than matching blood types for a transfusion, ma rrow transplants require matching tissue types, which are characterized by complex genetic traits often unique to a particular race.
Q. "IF I AM A PROPER MATCH, HOW WILL KAREN'S DOCTORS FIND ME?": A. When the HLA types in your blood are identified, your typing will be put into an international database. Of course, participation in a bone marrow donation registry does not require you to donate bone marrow to anyone.
Q. "WHERE CAN I FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION?": A. -National Marrow Donor Program 1-800-MARROW-2; -Puget Sound Blood Center, (206) 292-6500, Darci Johnson; -On the Internet: http://oasis.leidenuniv.nl:8080, http://oncolink.upenn.edu, or search under keywords like "bone," "marrow,"and "donation."

-Annie Fortunato

We invite all comments and replies to this issue.

Virtual Editor's Note: To clarify one point of error in the above commentary, while it is possible to donate blood at the Harkness Pavilion, HLA typing for potential bone marrow donors is not carried out at the Health Sciences Campus. For more informat ion on where in the NYC area you can volunteer to be typed, call 1-800-NY-BLOOD (ext. 2) or call the New York Blood Center direct at 212-570-3000

V.A.

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