Red Blood Cells of a sickle cell anemia patient

The news about a major treatment for sickle cell disease hit hundreds of newspapers and publications around the world Wednesday.  Now I couldn’t read them all, but of the several I did only one directly addressed the back end of the story.  There’s always a story behind the story if you know what to look for.  I’ll leave the heavy medical speak to doctors and researchers in the link to the LA Times story below.

But here’s a simple summary of the big announcement: Doctors have now found a way to use bone marrow transplants to effectively treat  more adults suffering from Sickle Cell Anemia.  It “appears” to be very good news for 70,000 Americans, almost all of them black, a few of Jewish descent.  To greatly simplify sickle cell patients’ red blood cells have a crescent shape,  like sickles.   Their jagged edges get stuck on the walls of blood vessels which can be very painful and sometimes fatal.

If you don’t know, bone marrow typing to find matches outside your family go almost exclusively along racial and ethnic lines.  Put it another way, sickle cell candidates for bone marrow transplants will need a black donor.  And there’s part of the rub.  If you’re black you have about a 30 percent less chance of finding a bone marrow match than someone who’s white.  Of the seven million people in donor registries, fewer than seven percent are African American.

If ever there was an example of the racial divide in the available health care in America, this is it.  The face of sickle cell anemia is a black one.  That’s not a judgement, that’s a fact.  But there’s good news in addressing the chronic shortage of available minority donors.  With a simple cheek swab they can register as potential donors with the help of www.bethematch.org.

The news about treating sickle cell anemia with bone marrow transplants is certainly good, but if a match can’t be found, what does it matter?  Take matters into your own hands and register as a donor today at www.bethematch.org.  You are a match for someone somewhere in the world, it’s just a matter of will that person get sick and will you be registered when the call for help comes?

About Kevin Walsh:

The Marrow in Me Book

Kevin Walsh is the author of The Marrow in Me and an anchor/reporter for Comcast Sportsnet New England and New England Cable News.  His book details his journey to becoming a bone marrow donor for a 16-year-old boy he’d never met.

LA Times Story

kevinwalstv@gmail.com

One of the greatest athletes of all time announced he’s been battling cancer for some time.   Technically Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s in remission for chronic myeloid leukemia, cancer of the blood and bone marrow.   He’s 62-years-old and has a good chance to beat it with advances in oral medicine.

I have to admit I couldn’t stand the man when I was a boy.  Most of it had to do with the fact that his Lakers beat up on my hometown 76ers.  I didn’t like his goggles and that unstoppable sky hook either.  But I’ve come to admire the man.  I am now a fan of Kareem because of what he represents–a fighting spirit and a goal to educate people about leukemia.

Who knew a 7′2″ black man and a 5′9″ white tv sportscaster had some much in common?   Why bring up race?  Because it matters in bone marrow typing and transplants.  Hopefully Kareem won’t have to get to that point, but if he did his best bet of  finding a matching bone marrow donor would be in the black community.  I know what I’m talking about.  I’ve been a bone marrow donor, researched the issue extensively, and wrote a book about it.  Unlike blood, bone marrow typing falls almost exclusively along racial and ethnic lines.

Author Kevin Walsh after having bone marrow harvested from his bones. A 16-year-old boy received Kevin's marrow in a transplant.

When one is sick with any of 75 disorders that can be treated with bone marrow transplant–leukemias being among the biggest–doctors first look within the patient’s family.  But even then there’s only about a 25-percent chance they’ll find a match from a family member.  They’ll then turn to the outside world of international bone marrow registries.  For a person of color the chance of finding an unrelated match is about 20-30 percent less than it is for someone who’s white.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate, but the numbers don’t lie.  It’s a tougher road for minorities because they’re largely underrepresented on donor rolls.  Awareness would certainly help and there’s no better time than now to put the word out about the need for more people, especially blacks, latinos and asians to take the initial steps to register as a potential bone marrow donor.  November is National Bone Marrow Donor Awareness Month.  I like to say everyone is a match for someone somewhere.  It’s just a question of whether they’ll get sick, and will you be ready to help?

To join the registry visit the National Marrow Donor Program’s Be the Match registry.