Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children is participating in a clinical trial that offers potentially lifesaving bone marrow transplants to cancer patients who do not have matching donors.
Eighteen-year-old Sarah Ruiz, a Mililani High School senior, was the first Hawaii patient for a half-match transplant March 5. Her sister Jessica, 20, a University of Hawaii-Hilo sophomore, was the donor.
Whereas usual transplants are accompanied by chemotherapy to target cancerous cells, the new approach uses a weaker dose of chemo timed to discourage the donor's immune cells from attacking healthy recipient cells. The new immune system then recognizes and attacks the cancer cells and destroys them.
Dr. Randy Wada, head of Kapiolani's transplant program and the Hawaii Cord Blood Bank, applied to the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network to let Kapiolani join the clinical trial because of a lack of bone marrow matches for many multiethnic Hawaii patients and the difficulty of going to the mainland for the procedure.
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