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Oregon Mail Tribune Article - April 19, 2002
Off the slippery slope of MS
By BILL KETTLER
Dave Hassenpflug, 36, of Medford, feels no more pain after a stem-cell transplant stopped the progression of his multiple sclerosis.
An Eagle Point grad's stem cell transplant appears to have stopped the progress of multiple sclerosis
By BILL KETTLER
Dave Hassenpflug thinks he's a lucky guy.
Multiple sclerosis put him in a wheelchair, but an experimental treatment seems to have stopped the disease in its tracks. Doctors destroyed his immune system and used his own blood to build a new one to make his body "forget" he had MS.
"I was on a slippery slope going downhill fast," said Hassenpflug,
36, an Eagle Point High School grad who made a life in California
until he came down with the disease. He'd lost the use of his
legs and suffered constant pain from his thighs to his knees. He
still can't walk, but the pain has disappeared, and his physical
deterioration has halted.
"Now it doesn't hurt a doggone bit," he said. "It's just terrific."
Hassenpflug was one of the first patients to receive a transplant
of his own stem cells, the specialized blood cells that
manufacture other new blood cells.
The procedure (known as an "autologous" transplant because a
patient provides his own cells) has its risks, and it's not
suitable for everyone who has the disease. But it shows promise
for stopping the rapid physical decline some MS patients experience.
"The whole idea is to keep the MS from progressing," said Dr.
Michael Narus, Hassenpflug's neurologist.
To understand how a stem-cell transplant works, it helps to know a
little about multiple sclerosis, a disease in which part of the
body's immune system goes haywire and attacks the insulating
sheaths around nerve cells in the brain and spine. Symptoms vary
tremendously. Some people lose their ability to walk. Others
suffer from fatigue or have vision problems. Some have occasional
flare-ups but carry on mostly normal lives. Others deteriorate quickly.
Researchers realized they might be able to make the body forget it
had MS if they could destroy the malfunctioning immune system,
but they also had to find a way to build a new one or patients
would die from simple infections. As their knowledge grew, they
theorized they might be able to remove a patient's own stem cells
and reintroduce them after they destroyed the immune system with
drugs and radiation.
That's exactly what they did to Hassenpflug in June 2000. He
returned to the Rogue Valley to recuperate close to family
members who live here. Nearly two years later, tests show his
disease has not progressed.
"The transplant did exactly what it was supposed to do," he said.
"It killed my MS."
Hassenpflug's success prompted another Medford MS patient, Mark
Towery, to undergo a stem-cell transplant in January 2001. So
far, Towery's results have been equally promising.
"It stopped the progression (of the disease) entirely," said
Towery, a 1992 graduate of South Medford High School.
While the treatment clearly shows results over the short term, it
remains experimental because it has significant risks and
permanent adverse effects, said Narus. Transplant patients are
extremely vulnerable to ordinary infections because they have no
immune system for some time after the procedure. Three to 6
percent of patients die from pneumonia and other diseases, and
all patients are permanently sterile after the treatment.
It's also expensive - Hassenpflug's family raised $100,000 for his
transplant. Medical insurance won't cover the procedure because
it's experimental.
Narus said the treatment is still too new to know how effective it
will be over the long term. Fewer than 200 people have had
stem-cell transplants since the procedure became available in
1997, so there's no way at this point to know how effective the
transplants will be 10 or 20 or 30 years down the road.
Hassenpflug hopes that researchers will find a cure for MS or that
his damaged nervous system will rebuild itself. For now, he takes
solace that his physical deterioration has stopped.
"I used to go to sleep not knowing if I was going to be eating my
breakfast through a straw," he said.
"It's a very, very scary thing not knowing what's going to happen
to you tomorrow."
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