| Dr. Patrick Stiff, director, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola University Health System, will speak on “The Promise of Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells for Transplantation,” at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 21, 2007, at Gilda’s Club Chicago, 537 N. Wells St., Chicago. Open to the public, the Top Doctors Lecture Series is free-of-charge, but 24-hour advance reservations are required. On-site child supervision is available with 48-hour advance notice. Call (312) 464-9900, ext. 18, to make reservations. The monthly Top Doctors Lecture Series, a partnership between Chicago magazine and Gilda’s Club Chicago, features Chicago magazine’s Top Doctors. Chicago magazine profiled Dr. Stiff in its January 2007 cover story, Breakthrough Medicine. Umbilical cord blood transplants at Loyola are curing or slowing the progression of many cancers originating in the bone marrow (e.g., leukemia, myeloma) or lymphatic system (lymphoma). More than 106,000 people in the U.S. each year are diagnosed with these life-threatening diseases. Umbilical cord blood (the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta following birth) contains adult stem cells and offers excellent opportunities for research. It also is an alternative to embryonic stems cells in treating these cancers. “Umbilical cord blood is a rich source of stem cells from which new, healthy blood and immune cells can be produced,” said Stiff, professor of medicine and pathology, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Ill. “Patients unable to find a matching bone marrow donor may have an alternative with umbilical cord blood transplantation.” Each year in the U.S., 10,000 to 15,000 people are unable to find a suitable bone marrow donor among relatives or from the national bone marrow donor registry. “Because cord blood cells are more easily matched to recipients, cord blood transplantation may offer greater treatment options to patients,” said Stiff. “Umbilical cord blood matching is less restrictive than that of bone marrow, which must be perfectly matched between donor and recipient for best results.”Stem cells produce white blood cells, which fight infections; red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues and organs; and platelets, which help clot the blood, preventing excessive bleeding. Bone marrow, which is comprised of red and white blood cells, platelets and stem cells, is found in the center cavities of all bones as well as within the ends of the long bones of the arms and legs.A transplant provides the patient with healthy, new stem cells to develop a new immune system. “The goal of the umbilical cord blood stem cell transplant is to replace diseased or nonfunctional stem cells with healthy stem cells,” said Stiff. “The transplant can also be used to replace cancer patient’s bone marrow cells that are damaged from high-dose chemotherapy or radiation therapy. These new cells may cause the bone marrow to again function normally.”Loyola has the largest bone marrow transplantation program in Illinois, performing 160 transplants each year. It is a participating center in the National Marrow Donor Program network. Loyola physicians have performed more than 40 adult umbilical cord blood transplants and Loyola was the first center to report the successful use of cells grown outside of the body for transplantation purposes. Stiff has developed a unique method of preparing umbilical cord blood that enables more stem cells to survive and provide a leukemia or lymphoma cancer patient with a new immune system. He is working on further increasing the number of stem cells that can survive.Loyola has been awarded a $1.4 million research grant by the State of Illinois. With funding from the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute (IRMI), Loyola researchers are investigating ways to grow both blood stem cells and immune cells from cord blood stem cells outside the body. “The ultimate goal,” Dr. Stiff said, “will be to use these cells as a stem cell transplant source for those adults without related or unrelated living donors, making it possible for the first time to find a donor for everyone needing a transplant to fight cancer. Of the 3,000 cord blood transplant procedures that have been performed worldwide, only a small portion have been on adults, due to the limited number of stem cells in these small cord blood samples. Loyola is focusing its research on cord blood transplantation to increase the number of adults who have access to this potential curative therapy.“It can be painlessly and safely collected after the umbilical cord has been clamped and cut,” said Stiff. “Since a cord blood donation yields far fewer stem cells than a bone marrow donation, the procedure has been used primarily in children and teens. Therefore, we need to find ways to grow these cells outside the body for broader use in adult patients.“The critical time for patients is after transplant but before engraftment when the transplanted cells start making blood cells,” said Stiff. “During this in-between time, the blood counts are low, so it is a delicate balancing act of treating the disease and protecting the patient from rejection and infection. In addition we are learning that late infections are also a problem as more patients are going home after this critical first part of the transplant. This new research will develop a method to boost immunity after the transplant is completed.”Much of the research is taking place in the new McCormick Tribune Foundation Center for Cellular Therapy, located in Loyola’s Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center. Here, scientists can produce pure cell populations that are contaminant-free for infusion into cancer patients.The Top Doctors Lecture Series and other activities at Gilda’s Club are open to anyone interested in cancer treatment/research; health care professionals; people diagnosed with cancer, family members and friends. The March 21 presentation is targeted to adults. Gilda’s Club has an indoor play area for children. A special open house for health professionals will be held from 5 – 6 p.m., Wednesday, March 21. For further information on Loyola’s umbilical cord blood program, cancer treatment or physician referral, visit www.LoyolaMedicine.org or call (888) LUHS-888.
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| Based in the western suburbs of Chicago, Loyola University Health System is a quaternary care system with a 61-acre main medical center campus, the 36-acre Gottlieb Memorial Hospital campus and 28 primary and specialty care facilities in Cook, Will and DuPage counties. The medical center campus is conveniently located in Maywood, 13 miles west of the Chicago Loop and 8 miles east of Oak Brook, Ill. The heart of the medical center campus, Loyola University Hospital, is a 569-licensed-bed facility. It houses a Level 1 Trauma Center, a Burn Center and the Ronald McDonald� Childrens Hospital of Loyola University Medical Center. Also on campus are the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola Outpatient Center, Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine and Loyola Oral Health Center as well as the LUC Stritch School of Medicine, the LUC Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and the Loyola Center for Fitness. Loyola's Gottlieb Memorial Hospital campus in Melrose Park includes the 264-bed community hospital, the Gottlieb Center for Fitness and the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Care Center.
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