MEDICAL HISTORY
In July 2003 Geoff went to his GP with stomach cramps. A blood test showed the early stages of chronic myeloid leukaemia. He was referred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for a transplant from his sister, Kay, who fortunately was a tissue match.
The transplant involved being admitted to an isolation room and receiving intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Stem cells were then harvested from Kay and transplanted to Geoff.
Over the next three weeks Kay's stem cells grew and replaced the leukaemia cells which had been destroyed by the chemotherapy and radiotherapy. After discharge from hospital he continued to be monitored in the outpatient department.As a result of this intensive treatment it is hoped that Geoff can look forward to a life free of leukaemia. He has been in remission since January 2005.
Although transplants have the potential to cure leukaemia they are clearly very intensive and potentially dangerous procedures which can only be considered in young patients.
The consequence of work performed by scientists at the University of Birmingham is that new and safer forms of treatment are being trialled at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the hope that patients of any age can receive the curative benefit of transplant therapies.
SOME LEUKAEMIA FACTS
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25,000 new cases of leukaemia or related blood disorders develop every year in the UK.
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Approximately 110,000 people are currently living with leukaemia in the UK.
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6,150 people are diagnosed with blood cancers each year, 500 of which are children.
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The chance of developing leukaemia increases with age and it is especially common in adults.
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Chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation have the capacity to cure a growing number of adults but curative treatments are still not available for many patients.
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New treatments for adult leukaemia are becoming available. A recently developed drug, Imatinib (Glivec) designed to inhibit the abnormal gene which causes chronic myeloid leukaemia has had remarkable success and is associated with few of the side effects of chemotherapy. This breakthrough serves as a model of how future drugs can be targeted against other forms of leukaemia for which effective treatments do not currently exist.
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Stem cell tranplants are highly effective treatments for many patients but can only be safely used in younger patients because of their side effects. Recent work from a number of centres has shown that it is now possible to transplant older patients. Ground-breaking work in Birmingham is developing new approaches by which transplants can be delivered more safely so that more patients can benefit from their curative potential.
