Student needs miracle at marrow drive

Thursday, June 11, 1998

Student needs miracle at marrow drive

ANDERSON: Anderson School helps Ren Wu find donor to help with
life-threatening leukemia battle

By Matt Grace

Daily Bruin Contributor

Ren Wu, a graduate student, is the inspiration for an on-campus
bone marrow drive, after being diagnosed with a rare form of
leukemia.

"I was more shocked than anything else," Wu said. "You have a
big plan for your life, and suddenly time is running short a little
bit."

And time is running short. Wu needs a bone marrow transplant,
and finding a genetic match between donor and patient is difficult.
Wu’s friend decided to help speed up the search for a match.

"When you’re dealing with such a serious illness for someone you
care about, it’s hard to sit back and do nothing," said Catherine
Oyler, a graduate student at the Anderson School at UCLA.

Approximately 70 percent of patients in need do not have a
family member who is a suitable donor.

"Patients will most likely find a matching donor within his or
her own ethnic group," said Enisha Narang, recruiting coordinator
for Asians for Miracle Marrow Match (AMMM). "For Ren, his best
chance will probably be someone from the Asian and Pacific Islander
community."

However, minorities are not well-represented in the National
Marrow Donor Program, a computerized data bank of potential marrow
donors that matches them to patients in need. Three million donors
are registered in the National Marrow Donor Program, yet only one
in fifty is Asian or Pacific Islander. This can be attributed to a
lack of awareness and trust for bone marrow donor programs in
minority communities, Narang said

The characteristics used to match marrow are inherited much like
eye, skin and hair color, according to AMMM.

"It will become more clear in the next six months as to whether
there’s going to be a transplant in the near future," said Wu.

UCLA graduate students are holding a bone marrow drive at the
Anderson School to help Wu by registering potential donors.

"The Anderson community has been fantastic in providing
support," Wu said.

Narang agreed, calling the registration "the first step" of the
recruitment process.

The drive is co-sponsored by the Anderson School and AMMM, a
non-profit organization aimed at recruiting Asian and Pacific
Islanders as potential bone marrow donors. The fund-raising money
came from businesses and corporations.

"We are trying to get anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of the
Anderson student body to participate and a good majority of the
undergraduates," said Jennifer Aaker, professor of marketing and
one of the 30 organizers of the drive.

Also, the organizers made sure the volunteers would not have to
pay for the procedure.

"A lot of the times when people go to get tested, they have to
cover the cost of the testing," Oyler said. "We didn’t want the
money to be the determining factor, so we’ll cover the cost with
the fund-raiser."

After volunteers donate blood, the samples are tested for bone
marrow type and put into the national database, Narrang said. "Any
potential donor that matches the patient is contacted," she added.
"And donors must be willing to get tested for all patients who
match."

Bone marrow protects the body from disease by producing
infection-fighting white blood cells, platelets to prevent bleeding
and bruising, and red blood cells to carry oxygen.

"Bone marrow transplants involve an intense combination of
radiation and chemotherapy targeted at the cancerous cells in the
bone marrow," said Dr. Gary Schiller, an associate professor of
medicine.

The bone marrow transplants are used to support the patient
through the intense doses and provides a second immune system to
help fight infection in the patient. If the marrow does not match
exactly, the transplanted marrow can reject the patient, not vice
versa, and actually kill the patient, Schiller said. Potential
donors must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good general
health.

With reports by J. Sharon Yee, Daily Bruin Contributor.

Graduate

student Catherine Oyler puts up a flyer to help in the search
for a bone marrow match for her friend Ren Wu.