Sep 3, 2008 12:53 pm US/Eastern
Bone Marrow Transplant Program Extends Lives
CBS, ABC, NBC Unite For Cancer Fund-Raising Special
Stand Up For Cancer Airs Friday at 8:00 p.m. On CBS
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Traditionally patients with certain kinds of blood cancers had to travel far from home, sometimes out of state, for life saving procedures. Now, there's a facility here in South Florida that treats these conditions. The Memorial Cancer Institute's bone marrow transplant program in Pembroke Pines is giving cancer patients a chance to extend their lives.
"Unless you have a positive attitude, you're not going to make it," says Laurice Goodin. Goodin has battled colon cancer, multiple myloma and breast cancer for the past 12 years and she says only now does she feel much better.
Laurice attributes her newfound wellness to Memorial's Cancer Institute in Pembroke Pines and the bone marrow transplant program.
In the program, Laurice underwent an autologous transplant where cells from a patient's own blood are removed and stored before undergoing chemotherapy. It's a less complicated transplant that can be performed on an outpatient basis.
The director of the program, Dr. Lyle Feinstein says after chemotherapy, a patient's normal blood marrow is essentially destroyed. That's why the transplant blood cells are stored then returned to a patient's body.
"What the transplant does is it markedly knocks down the cancer in her body. The stored stem cells that we use restore her ability to produce normal blood cells," explained Dr. Feinstein.
The transplant is not painful, but it is time consuming. It lasts several hours a day, every day for four to six weeks. The real benefit of the transplant is extending a patient's life a few more years.
"For certain conditions it is curative for other diseases it significantly prolongs survival and survival without disease," Dr. Feinstein said.
"I've literally with this transplant bought four years of life," Goodwin said.
And for her, those years are a true gift.
"Now I'm able to walk, I'm able to putter in the garden. It will improve the quality of life, which it has," Goodwin said.
The Memorial Cancer Insitute will expand their program in the next few years to include allogeneic transplants which use bone barrow or stem cells from a donor whose tissues closely match the patients.
Raising awareness and funds for cancer research is the focus of Friday's Stand Up To Cancer special. CBS, along with NBC and ABC, will simultaneously devote one-hour of commercial-free prime time to raise funds for the fight against cancer. More than 60 celebrities are also participating in this unique mission.
During the show the stars will be on hand at the celebrity phone bank to take donation calls. Stand Up To Cancer will air on CBS4 on September 5th, beginning at 8 p.m.
If you want to find out more about the event and how to help, go to the website
standup2cancer.org.
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