Leukemia Patient Receives Stem Cell Treatment

Health officials said on Thursday that a middle-aged leukemia patient has become Chile’s first patient to receive stem cells from an umbilical cord in a radical procedure that might cure the disease. 

Doctors at Santiago’s Catholic University Hospital, where the operation was performed, said the man, who is 48 years old, received the transplant cells on Monday from samples stored in the so-called "Bank of Life" institute.

"Beforehand the patient received chemotherapy and radiation for seven weeks, and after a day of rest the stem cells were injected as if he were having a transfusion, through a vein," Francisco Barriga, coordinator of the hospital’s Hematology and Oncology Clinic, told AFP.

According to the officials, the new cells could take up to a year to be effective, because the traditional therapy destroyed the diseased cells so the operation’s success will not be immediately known.

Barriga said that if the leukemia has not reappeared in about two to three years, the patient would be considered healed.

The Bank of Life has been in operation in Chile for two years, and it holds about 200 samples of stem cells.

Barriga said the bank’s long-term goal is to be able to provide cells for "whoever needs them around the world."

The institute hopes to negotiate agreements with more local authorities to reach this goal by allowing it to be able to store the valuable stem cells from umbilical cords that are removed from births.

Scientists separate stem cells from white blood cells for it’s blood processing procedures. By doing this, they freeze them at -40 degrees Fahrenheit and then immerse them in liquid at -310 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Once this is done the samples are stored in the bank until a compatible patient is found.