Leukemia patient Allison Atlas is in good spirits as she recuperates from the bone marrow transplant operation she underwent last week at the Fred Hutchinson Bone Marrow Transplant Center in Seattle, according to her family.
“She is fine, there were no complications and everything is as the doctors expected,” said Simon Atlas, Allison’s first cousin, who is helping to coordinate the Friends of Allison campaign to find compatible marrow donors.
The 21-year-old resident of Bethesda, Md., underwent a procedure Aug. 9 in which her cancerous cells were removed and replaced by her mother’s healthy bone marrow.
The operation came after an unsuccessful eight-month search for a compatible marrow donor, an unprecedented public campaign that tested nearly 50,000 individuals, mainly of Jewish descent. Last month, the Atlas family finally decided to settle for Arlene Atlas’ marrow, which is only partially compatible.
The treatment involved eight to 10 days of doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy to kill the diseased marrow, followed by the intravenous transmission of healthy bone marrow. The operation is extremely risky as there is always the possibility of infection, and there is no guarantee that the bone marrow will be accepted by the body.
Doctors will not know for at least two weeks, and more likely a full month, whether the operation has been successful, said Alice Burgess, a spokesman for the Hutchinson Center.
On Aug. 23, the doctors will test Allison’s new marrow to see whether there is a growth in the number of white blood cells. They will repeat the test every week for three weeks.
“It’s not uncommon for patients not to show significant growth after two weeks,” said Burgess. “If the count doesn’t increase within five weeks, however, the doctors begin to get concerned.”
Should the healthy cells not take hold, Allison may undergo a second transplant operation from her mother, in addition to further treatments that may induce cell growth, Burgess said.
Meanwhile, Allison is convalescing comfortably in a private room at the center in Seattle.
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