By SUSAN JAY

Every morning David Hassenpflug has to sit on his legs to make them bend, setting off a streak of pain from his knees to his hips. His legs have grown rigid and stiff from multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease also responsible for spasms, temporary blindness and his heat and cold sensitivity. The 33-year-old Eagle Point High School graduate, diagnosed when he was 25, now has a rare opportunity to potentially stop the forward march of his disease. Hassenpflug and his family, transplant doctors and the few MS patients who have undergone the treatment think this procedure could stop the disease's progression and may be a cure. The single dad who now lives in Southern California will be the first multiple sclerosis patient to receive a stem cell transplant at the University of San Diego as part of the university's Bone Marrow Transplant program. He and his family, most of whom live in the Rogue Valley, hope the procedure will stabilize the disease so Hassenpflug can walk and play with his two sons, Maxwell, 9, and Travis, 7. "I'm very much looking forward to it. I very much want to take care of this," Hassenpflug said. In a stem cell transplant, a patient's own bone marrow cells are removed. The patient receives radiation and chemotherapy and then the bone marrow cells are reintroduced, basically creating a new immune system. Transplant centers across the United States and in Europe have experimented with the procedure for 10 years and are seeing promising results, said Dr. Jose Leis, an oncologist and associate professor at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. He said OHSU will offer the same experimental treatment soon. Neurologists, however, remain skeptical saying the risk is high and potential results minimal. Cancer patients who undergo stem cell transplants face about a 5 percent risk of death. Leis and others believe the mortality rate for non-cancer patients could be lower, because cancer patients are usually sicker and have undergone numerous treatments. Hassenpflug, who has been wheelchair-bound since 1994, knows of a woman who could not walk before the procedure and now can run. A Seattle patient, Jay Ellison, underwent the procedure and went from being bedridden to being able to take his kids to the car races in six months. The City of Hope, a Southern California cancer center where Hassenpflug's friend was treated, rejected his application to the study, saying he wasn't sick enough. So Hassenpflug's sisters, aunt and mother spent hours on the Internet, asking other cancer centers to consider Hassenpflug. Several were interested, and the family talked with University of California at San Diego because it was closest to Hassenpflug's Long Beach home. "I really feel for David, and I would really like to do this transplant for him and I think he is an excellent patient for this,'' said Dr. Ewa Carrier, an associate professor and oncologist at the center. "I would not propose this to a patient if I did not think he would improve," she said. Carrier expects Hassenpflug's risks to be low because he is young and his organs seem to be healthy. UCSD is already performing stem cell transplants on patients with lupus and arthritis with grants from the National Institute of Health. Hassenpflug lives on Medicaid and Medicare, neither of which will pay for the $100,000 procedure. Carrier said if the family can raise money toward the treatment and negotiate with the pharmaceutical company for a discount on its purification kits -- which cost $10,000 a pop -- she will try and reduce her costs and will ask the hospital to work with the family. Hassenpflug's sisters are searching for nonprofit organizations to oversee donations so donors can receive tax deductions. They are also planning golf and bowling tournaments in Southern California, where some of Hassenpflug's friends can help organize the events. For more information on how to help Hassenpflug, or on the procedure, call B.J. Taylor at 535-4879.

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