Bone Marrow Transplants Cure People of Sickle Cell Disease

Boston (DbTechNo) - Results of a new study show that using a new technique to administer bone marrow may help patients diagnosed with sickle cell
disease.

The disease is characterized by mis-shaped red blood cells, which can lead to a host of symptoms including wheezing, pain, stroke and organ failure.

The disease is inherited, and currently there is no full cure for it.

According to the researchers of the study, the new technique which has been a fixture in treating children, may also work in adults diagnosed with the disease.

It works by giving patients radiation to kill their own bad marrow, and then injecting them with healthy marrow as an alternative.

This new marrow creates new red blood cells in the body, replacing the bad ones killed off by the radiation.

The procedure proved to be successful in 9 of 10 patients, who were actually cured of sickle cell disease.

“Sickle cell is a devastating illness that puts people in and out of hospitals their whole lives,” said Ira Bragg-Grant, executive director of the American Sickle Cell Anemia Association, in Cleveland. “For more adults to be freed of this chronic illness by transplants would be a phenomenal development.”

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.