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Donating umbilical cords saves cancer patients lives
FOX 26's Melissa Wilson has more in this report.
HOUSTON - A unique opportunity for a local woman! She is now working with the doctor who helped save her life at The University of Texas/MD Anderson Cancer Center. Now she's able to encourage other moms to donate their umbilical cords, to save even more lives.
Ariane Navarro was living her dream when she was 26. She was a teacher and married with a child. Then, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia or AML and the fight for her life began.
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"I had six rounds of chemo, and I had my treatment here at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Then, I was fine and everything looked good. But unfortunately, it came back in 2011. The good thing is, I had a lot of support, but it was a very difficult journey," explains Ariane.
Specialists determined that she would need a stem cell transplant, but that was challenging.
"Because I'm an only child and there's a very low number of donors for Black and Hispanic patients, they were fortunate enough to use cord blood," says Ariane.
She underwent a clinical trial using fresh new cells from two different umbilical cords, donated by their loving moms, but one issue with cord blood is the cells are so young, it takes a while for them to mature, while a patient is immunocompromised.
"That is one of the main reasons why some people don't make it, because any infection that all of us get, our immune system will fight it. But for someone who's immunocompromised, any little thing will just almost kill you, I guess you can say. So, the clinical trial that I was part of was two of them (umbilical cords). One was meant to kind of take over my body as quickly as possible, and then the other one was supposed to stay with me," says Ariane.
It worked, keeping her cancer free. Last year, she met up with her doctor in a unique way, not at her yearly check-up in the Survivorship Clinic.
"Many years later, she applied for a job at the cord bank, and has become one of our superstars in working in the collection arena, collecting cords for patients who might need them. It's really unique. She has such a great appreciation for the position and collecting the cells, so it's really gratifying to see she has great influence. She really is so positive and loves what she does," explains Dr. Eliabeth Shpall, who is the Director of MDA Cord Blood Bank.
This is the first time Dr. Shpall has ever had a patient go on to be a colleague.
Ariane is still in awe that they work together and can now share her story to encourage moms who are donating.
"I always try to share my story to moms who consented, and say they want to be part of the program. So, this is, like, another way that I can spread the word about donating their baby's cord blood. Usually, the placenta after the baby's born, and the cord is cut, the placenta just goes to the trash. So, just bringing awareness that you have the option to donate, and it's free. It's voluntary, and it's available to anyone around the world who needs a transplant and is compatible, it's a match. So, the great thing about cord blood is it doesn't have to be a perfect match, whereas bone marrow, it has to be closer to a match," states Ariane.
Ariane truly knows both sides of the story now.
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She has been through a lot during her cancer journey and still has to deal with long-term side effects.
"I'm still here at MD Anderson as a patient, doing survivorship care, which is one of the only hospitals in the country that has young adult survivorship care. It has been life changing, because my quality of life has improved exponentially. Because one of the things that, after 10 years, I started having this chronic fatigue, and for a long time, since I'm very high-achieving, I was very hard on myself thinking, I was just being lazy, but they actually have a fatigue clinic here that is helping me," says a smiling Ariane.
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