Young Leukemia Patient Cancer-Free After Receiving Stem Cells From Umbilical Cord

January 12, 2009 6:13 a.m. EST

Miami, FL (AHN) - A two-year-old child from Florida is free of signs of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, a rare form of pediatric leukemia, after receiving stem cells from a donated umbilical cord.

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia generally affects children under the age of five and comprises less than 1 percent of infant leukemias. The prognosis for JMML is generally poor and most children with JMML die before reaching the age of three, according to a media release from the New York Blood Center's Howard P. Milstein National Cord Blood Center.

Adolfo Gonzalez was diagnosed with JMML when he was 13 months old. "Adolfo Gonzalez would most likely not be alive today if it weren't for the cord blood transplant," Dr. Gary Kleiner, a pediatric immunologist at the University of Miami School of Medicine, said in a statement. "The mother who donated her cord blood to the public cord blood bank at New York's National Cord Blood Program basically saved his life."

Adolfo's treatment included chemotherapy to destroy his leukemia cells followed by a cord blood stem cell transplant from the blood center. He did endure some complications, but about two weeks after he had received the infusion of the stem cells, his white cell count began to return to normal. The little boy has no signs of any leukemia 17 months later.

About 3,000 people have received donated umbilical cord stem cells since the blood center began freezing umbilical cords in 1992. The center has about 50,000 stored.