November 26, 2002
DFCI and BWH reach major milestone in unrelated donor
transplants
John G. Gribben, MB ChB, MD, DSc
When Don Dockerty searched the Internet for the best treatment for his cancer, he spotted Dana-Farber as a great potential site. What he didn't know then was that he would wind up being part of a DFCI milestone.
Dockerty, who has chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and lymphoma, was the recipient on Nov. 14 of the Institute's 500th unrelated donor transplant to an adult at Dana-Farber or Brigham and Women's Hospital. The procedure took place at Brigham and Women's Hospital, which partners with DFCI's transplant center in providing them.
"Five-hundred is a big number - we're very excited," says Deborah Liney, manager of unrelated transplant services for Dana-Farber. "We're only the second institute in the world to do that, next to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle."
A 57-year-old Michigan resident, Dockerty received his marrow from an anonymous donor through a procedure known as a non-myeloablative transplant. Much lower doses of drugs are used in this process than in traditional transplants, sparing the patient from the complications of high-dose therapy and germ-free isolation.
"As transplants go, this was about as smooth as we could get it to go," says Dockerty's physician, John Gribben, MBChB, MD, of Medical Oncology. "In Don's case, it was easy to find a match, so we were able to go forward quickly."
Making headway As part of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), Dana-Farber's transplant center maintains a registry of potential bone marrow and blood stem cell donors and has access to databases containing eight million registered donors worldwide.
For Dockerty's transplant, Gribben explains, the medical team sought to trigger what's known as a "graft-versus-leukemia effect," meaning that the new cells from the donor recognize and attack the recipient's remaining leukemia cells. "It was a different - and successful - approach to treating Don," he says.
Before receiving the transplant, Dockerty, who came to Boston with his wife Mary, had four days of chemotherapy and was on anti-rejection drugs. He'll be staying in the area for several weeks for check-ups, lodging at the privately-funded Family Inn in Brookline. This low-cost facility serves as a "home-away-from-home" for transplant patients and their families receiving care in the Boston area.
"When I went on the Internet and read about different places, I found I liked what Dr. Gribben was doing," recalls Dockerty, who first traveled to Boston and met the physician about a year ago. Dockerty had been receiving chemotherapy for three years before the transplant and felt that "this was the only way to get rid of the cancer."
The milestone of 500 unrelated-donor transplants is a significant one, and speaks volumes for the success of Dana-Farber's program. "We've been doing unrelated transplants here for more than a decade," says Joseph Antin, MD, chief of stem cell transplantation in Medical Oncology at DFCI and medical director, Bone Marrow Transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "It's a dangerous procedure, but through local and national research that we've been major participants in, excellent headway has been made in enhancing the success of this procedure and curing people."
As for Dockerty, he says he's happy to tell his story "if it can inspire other people to donate stem cells." He adds that, "I think it's so neat that people do this, even when they don't know whom they're helping."
