Seventeen Months After Cord Blood Transplant - Child is Free of Signs...( National Cord Blood Program Provides ...),Health

National Cord Blood Program Provides Stem Cells

NEW YORK, Jan. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A two year old child from Florida is free of signs of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), a very rare form of pediatric leukemia, seventeen months after receiving a transplant with cord blood from the National Cord Blood Program (NCBP) of the New York Blood Center's Howard P. Milstein National Cord Blood Center.

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia generally affects children under the age of five and comprises less than one percent of infant leukemias. The prognosis for JMML is generally poor and most children with JMML die before reaching the age of three.

Adolfo Gonzalez was diagnosed with JMML when he was thirteen months old. "Adolfo Gonzalez would most likely not be alive today if it weren't for the cord blood transplant," said Gary Kleiner, M.D., Ph.D., pediatric immunologist at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "The mother who donated her cord blood to the public cord blood bank at New York's National Cord Blood Program basically saved his life."

Adolfo's treatment included chemotherapy to destroy his leukemia cells followed by a cord blood stem cell transplant from NCBP. He did endure some complications, but approximately two weeks after he had received the infusion of the stem cells, his white cell count began to return to normal. Adolfo has no signs of any leukemia seventeen months later.

"We're thrilled that NCBP, the first and largest public cord blood bank in the world, was able to help Adolfo and his family," said NCBP Chief Scientist Pablo Rubinstein, M.D. "He's among almost 3,000 people who have received a match from the 50,000 units we've frozen since 1992."

Note: WCTV in Tallahassee, Florida conducted an in-depth interview with Dr. Kleiner. A full transcript, along with Dr. Kleiner's media contact information, is a
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