MARROW TRANSPLANT: LIFESAVER THAT CAN KILL.(Main)

Byline: Robert Whitaker Staff writer

For the past 25 years, there have been few medical procedures that have seemed so promising - and yet remained so frustrating - as bone marrow transplants.

This procedure, which gives the patient a new immune system, can produce wondrous and lasting cures. Transplants have given new life to thousands of children and younger adults suffering from leukemia and other fatal blood-related diseases.

Yet, it also is a procedure that too often kills. The transplanted marrow frequently never gets a chance to work its curative powers because the patient doesn't survive transplant- related complications. Doctors and researchers are waiting for the breakthrough in knowledge that would increase survival rates dramatically.

"Realistically it isn't a cure-all and shouldn't be presented that way. The complications, even when the patient is fortunate enough to have a matched donor, are significant," said Dr. Craig W.S. Howe, chief executive officer of the National Marrow Donor Program in Minneapolis.

Earlier this year, the stories of two young children who underwent bone marrow transplants captured the hearts of people in the Capital District. But both died from complications common to the procedure.

Four-year-old Ashley Sellner of Clifton Park underwent a transplant Jan. 10 at Children's Hospital in Boston for chronic myelogenous leukemia, a type of cancer of the bone marrow. She died Feb. 29 after the transplanted marrow attacked her own body, a complication called graft vs. host disease (GVHD).

Eighteen-month-old Michela McDermott, also of Clifton Park, underwent a transplant March 9 at the University of Minnesota Hospital for Hurler's Syndrome, an enzyme deficiency that leads to a lethal buildup of sugar molecules. Her graft took hold and began producing the needed enzyme, but she died June 5 from bleeding in her lungs. The hemorrhaging came on the heels of a …