HEALTH : Blood Treatment Shows Promise

The first leukemia patient to undergo an experimental umbilical cord blood transplant is doing well, indicating the therapy may someday prove useful for leukemia, AIDS and other diseases, doctors said today.

Seven weeks ago, Michael Sancilio, 4, of Virginia Beach, Va., who suffers from a rare, deadly form of leukemia, received about six tablespoons of umbilical cord blood collected from his baby sister at birth.

The procedure is similar to the bone marrow transplants often used to give leukemia patients new, cancer-free bone marrow, but itspared Michael’s infant sister the risks of anesthesia used when bone marrow is harvested.

Michael is believed to be the first leukemia patient in the world to be treated by an umbilical blood cord transplant, said Dr. John Wagner, who directed the procedure at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

However, the doctor cautioned that, as in bone marrow transplant patients, it will be at least two years before it is known if the leukemia has been eliminated from the child.

Four other children--three in France and one in the United States--have undergone similar transplants for a blood disorder called Fanconi’s anemia since 1988.

The transplants began after researchers discovered umbilical cord blood was rich in stem cells, young cells that multiply and make up bone marrow.