| OCR Text |
Show Brenfs bank account grows as family waits for treatment i by JANICE PERRY Record editor It has been a quiet waiting game for Brent Bloomenthal, his brother and his father waiting for a bed to become available at one of the top cancer research hospitals in the country. Perhaps a bed will become available at the end of the week bringing br-inging one form of waiting to an end. When Brent is admitted to the hospital, then another kind of trial will begin the physical agony of the intensive treatment the ailing 5-year-old will undergo in the hopes of arresting the neuroblastoma cancer from which he suffers. Brent's mother, Jeannie, boarded an Amtrak train to Seattle Wednesday Wednes-day so she could be there for the procedure. pro-cedure. Brent is in Seattle due to the .generosity of the Park City communitywhich com-munitywhich has raised more than $50,000 in six weeks to help him a relative who pledged the first $50,000 and reluctant state officials of-ficials who waived protocol to permit per-mit Medicaid funding of the experimental ex-perimental bone marrow transplant for which Brent traveled to Seattle. Brent is waiting for a bed at the 10-year-old Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which was created under the auspices of the National Cancer Act of 1971, under which 21 cancer research centers nationwide were created. Hutchinson is the premiere facility facili-ty for bone-marrow transplants. Bone-marrow transplants were pioneered by Dr. E. Donnell Thomas in 1956 in Cooperstown, N.Y., and Hutchinson's Clinical Research Division which does the transplants is headed by Dr. Thomas. About 2,000 of the procedures pro-cedures have been performed at Hutchinson. "The hospital was named after , Fred Hutchinson, a very famous baseball pitcher, and later coach, who was a native of Seattle," said Hutchinson Research Center spokesman Emmit Glanz. The hospital's namesake died of cancer in 1964. Patients travel halfway around the world for treatment at "Hutch," as Glanz called the facility. Phil Bloomenthal, Brent's father, has seen that first-hand. "People come from all over the world for treatment here," Bloomenthal said. "In this apartment apart-ment building, there are people from Israel, Hong Kong, Germany this place (Hutchinson) apparently has a reputation for being the best in the world." But despite the expertise concentrated concen-trated at Hutchinson, Bloomenthal said the whole prospect is frightening frighten-ing and the outcome far less than certain. Because bone-marrow transplants have been so recently applied to the neuroblastoma form of cancer, doctors can only guess what its success rate will be. A look at what constitutes success helps one understand the complexity of that educated guess. "The procedure has only been done for the past two to three years," Glanz said. "To this point, the anticipated success rate is 40 percent," he said, noting success is defined as three years of being tumor-free. "Three years out from the bone marrow transplant, if there is no indication in-dication of a relapse, we find a relapse probably would not occur," Glanz said. "There have been a total of 75 to 80 of the procedures done (on neuroblastoma patients) and about a dozen have been done at Hutchinson," Hutchin-son," Glanz said. Bloomenthal described the procedure pro-cedure as a "radical destruction of all cancer cells on a one-shot basis," using intensive chemotherapy and whole-body radiation. "The unfortunate aspect is that it kills the patient's bone marrow" which produces life-essential blood components, Glanz said. "But by being be-ing able to give a transplant of bone marrow, if the graft takes, it will take over and start producing healthy blood cells," Glanz said. There is one complication. The bone-marrow transplant will be donated by Brent's half-brother, Ron, who is a less-than-perfect match. "We're really kind of scared because he's kind of a mismatch with his brother," Bloomenthal said. Glanz explained that the most ideal match would be that of an iden tical twin, but in most cases that is j impossible. So doctors try to match J all six antigens in the body's blood : I cells. In Brent's case, four of Ron's six antigens match. In organ transplants, doctors try to fight what is called graft versus host disease, in which the body : detects a foreign invader the J transplant and the body produces ' j antibodies in its blood to fight it. I But Glanz explained that in the case of a bone-marrow transplant, it is actually the graft that rejects the j host because the bone marrow that is producing the antibodies rejects i the body in which it is implanted. . The new anti-rejection drugs developed in recent years often can stem that problem. In Brent's favor is his age and his health, which is otherwise good. "The younger children survive bone marrow transplants better" than older people, Glanz said. In Park City, Brent's bank account ac-count is topping the $50,000 mark. On Wednesday the balance was $52,592, with only a few donations still outstanding, said bank official Don Gomes. j In the meantime, yet another fundraiser fun-draiser is in the works. A special ' presentation of last summer's melodrama, "Deadwood Dick," is scheduled Nov. 16 as a benefit for Brent. Marshall Industries, a Salt Lake City electronics firm, organized the fundaiser. Originally, the play was to be a closed presentation for firms in the Salt Lake City area. But there are some tickets available. Company Com-pany representative Pat Lannin said those interested may call 645-8391 Nov. 16 between noon and 4 p.m. for ticket information. For a $10 donation, patrons can enjoy en-joy a 5 p.m. buffet furnished by The Eating Establishment, followed by the play at 6:30. After 6 p.m., tickets for the play will be $5 at the door. Bloomenthal said he still is over- whelmed by Park City's response to the plight of his son and its ability to raise so much money. "It's amazing for a community that small," he said. "I don't think , we need all of those funds. Whatever ;, is not needed, we will probably set up in a trust fund for other Park City children who get sick." |
