Instead, he has been undergoing chemotherapy - in the form of pills he takes daily. Still, Viray has not found a suitable match since his diagnosis a decade ago. Although most of the cases are related to leukemia or lymphoma, Singh states there are over 100 other blood diseases that could be cured with a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. AADP now registers around 8000 potential donors each year. “Although we focus on Asian donors, if we get an African American patient, for example, who wants to campaign or get help from us, we work with African American communities for that,” she says. Since then, the program’s scope has broadened. “AADP started with the effort of helping Asian communities,” explains Shanna Singh, the Senior Community Engagement Representative for AADP. Though there are almost 1 million Asian members, only 80,000 have Filipino ancestry. While race is often presented as a handful of categories, these categories aren’t specific enough for finding a match. Figure 2: The number of potential donors in 2018, categorized by race. Several Asian leukemia patients consequently went without transplant, eventually dying from their cancers. At the time, the registry only had around 120 potential Asian/Pacific Islander donors. The subset was founded in 1989, just a few years after NMDP was established in 1986. AADP, which works in partnership with NMDP, aims to mitigate the very obstacle that Viray now faces. Last year, his story caught the eye of representatives of the Asian American Donor Program (AADP), who now provide a more elevated platform for his message. Viray and his wife have been spreading his story on social media to raise awareness of this disparity. Asian or Pacific Islander Americans, for example, are almost half as likely as white Americans in finding a match. The likelihood of finding a suitable donor is much less likely in the U.S. Patients are more likely to find a stem cell match from donors of similar ethnicity, and much fewer non-White Americans have signed up as possible donors in The National Marrow Donor Program’s, or NMDP’s, Be The Match registry (Figure 2). In the U.S., racial minorities are much less likely to find a suitable blood stem cell donor than White Americans (Figure 1). His biggest obstacle? He’s Filipino American. In fact, over 12,000 patients each year are in need of transplants like these to cure life-threatening ailments like the various forms of leukemia and lymphoma.įor years, Viray has been trying to obtain this potentially life-saving treatment. While Viray - and many other patients with blood diseases - have several treatment options, the best chance of a cure is usually through either a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer, chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).Įach year, nearly 9000 new cases of CML arise in the U.S. He works in IT support for Jelly Belly Candy Company and lives with his wife and four children. You may receive blood transfusions until your bone marrow recovers.Desimond Viray is a Californian in his early ‘30s. It takes a few weeks for the donor cells to settle in your bone marrow and begin making new cells. Expect to undergo frequent blood tests and appointments to monitor your body's response to the transplant. You may spend a few weeks in the hospital or nearby. After your transplant your care team will want to monitor you carefully for signs of complications. Stem cells from a donor will be infused into your bloodstream, where they will travel to your bone marrow and begin creating new blood cells. Talk with your doctor about what you can expect from your treatment. The cancer treatments used during the conditioning process carry a risk of side effects. What treatment you undergo depends on your disease and your particular situation. During the conditioning process, you'll receive high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy to kill your cancer cells. Undergoing high doses of cancer treatment (conditioning). Undergoing an allogeneic stem cell transplant involves: An allogeneic stem cell transplant may be an option for people with a variety of cancerous and noncancerous diseases, including:
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