A Bloomington resident is the first pediatric leukemia patient in the world to receive a successful stem cell transplant from a deceased donor.
Noah Britt, 14, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia last summer. Britt initially received a couple rounds of chemotherapy, but his leukemia was resistant to it.
He needed a standard stem cell transplant through the National Marrow Donor Program and was referred to Riley Hospital for Children for it, said Jodi Skiles, Riley Hospital’s Medical Director of Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant and Immunotherapy.
The transplant was unsuccessful. Skiles said on average it takes about 14 to 21 days post- transplant to see evidence of donor cells growing in a patient.
Between the 14 to 21 days Britt had high fevers, concerning Skiles that his immune system might be rejecting the donor stem cells.
By the 28th day, Britt was still not showing evidence of the donor cells growing, and the search for a second stem cell transplant donor started.
A family donor was not possible, and another living donor stem cell transplant would take up to six weeks, Skiles said.
She said Britt was at high risk of getting an infection and dying, creating an immediate need. This was due to the higher doses of chemotherapy Britt received for the initial transplant, which not only wipes out one’s immune systems and any cancer cells, but also damages healthy tissue.
"Thousands of people every year need a transplant and don't get one, and we really believe we can fill that gap entirely.”Erik Woods, Ossium’s chief science officer and co-founder
“All it takes is one small infection and he could die,” Skiles said. “And so you're really under pressure when you're in that situation of, ‘I've done a transplant that did not take, or that rejected for some reason, and I need to get to a second transplant.’”
They turned to Ossium Health’s Hope program, which provides patients with urgent need an allogenic bone marrow transplant from deceased donors, said Erik Woods, Ossium’s chief science officer and co-founder.
“We recognize we wouldn't be able to get everybody into that clinical trial, so we set up an expanded access program as well, in case people had dire need, where they had to find a donor and couldn't find one, that they could reach out to us directly,” Woods said.
Ossium is able to get bone marrow shipped and transplanted in 30 hours, he said. Through Hope, the bone marrow is free with the agreement that recipients share data with Ossium on the results.
Riley Hospital was in the process of getting a clinical trial established with Ossium when it learned about the Hope program, Skiles said.
“We were able to get cells shipped to us in a very short amount of time,” Skiles said. “In fact, they were ready to ship to us before we were ready from Noah's perspective.”
She said it’s been about four months since Britt has received the transplant and he’s doing well. It will take up to a year until Britt’s immune system is fully regrown.
Skiles said using a deceased donor “really just expands the pool of donor options, so that truly anybody that needs a transplant can get a transplant and can get it on the timeline that they need it, and it literally, for Noah, was the difference between life and death. If he had had to wait those six weeks, he would not have survived.”
Said Woods: “Thousands of people every year need a transplant and don't get one, and we really believe we can fill that gap entirely.”
