UCLA bone marrow drive to help patients with blood cancer

Through caring for her father’s leukemia, Florence Roussotte is helping match numerous blood cancer patients with potentially life-saving bone marrow donations.

Roussotte is going to bring her efforts to UCLA on Friday afternoon at a marrow donor registry drive in the MacDonald Medical Research Laboratory.

Roussotte, a neuroscience postdoctoral student, is organizing the event to help expand the stem cell and bone marrow donor network for patients with blood cancers like her father.

The Be The Match Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to expanding the donor network for patients with blood cancers in need of marrow or stem cell transplants, will help organize the event.

The drive was inspired by Roussotte’s father, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2012. After spending six months undergoing intensive chemotherapy, his cancer entered remission.

A few months after entering remission, however, his blood cancer relapsed. Rousette was told that her father would need a stem-cell replacement treatment within six to 12 months.

“He thought it was over for him. He thought he’d lost the battle,” she said.

Roussotte and her relatives have been searching for a potentially life-saving match for the last year.

To avoid an adverse reaction from a stem cell or bone marrow transplant, patients must find a donor whose unique blood characteristics very closely match their own.

As a result, more patients will be able to find transplant matches the larger the donor registry is.

“It is important to constantly increase the donor registry because, for many patients with blood diseases like leukemia, a transplant is their only hope for survival,” said Dr. Nicholas Reese, a physician in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Reese said a successful transplant can be a life-or-death difference for patients with blood cancers.

“For many patients, a successful bone marrow transplant can lead to a long, happy and fulfilling life free from cancer,” he said.

Roussotte said that instead of dwelling on her situation, she decided to work on helping other blood cancer patients. She learned about the Be The Match Foundation and discussed it with her father.

“When he realized how much work was being done around the clock to recruit that many donors, he really became hopeful again,” she said.

According to the foundation’s website, the vast majority of patients who require stem cell or bone marrow transplants are able to find a matching donor through the established registry.

Though Roussotte is not sure how many more drives she will be able to personally organize, she said that her father’s experience has inspired her to remain active in other initiatives to help blood cancer patients. “In fact, I hope to keep doing that even after we find a match for my dad, because going through this ordeal has really opened my eyes to the importance of this cause,” she said.

Roussotte is planning another marrow donor registry drive next month in Lancaster, Calif.

Reese said acute myeloid leukemia manifests in slightly different ways in each patient. Approximately 50 percent of otherwise healthy acute myeloid leukemia patients will require a bone marrow transplant as part of their treatment, Reese said.

Roussotte’s father is part of the 10 percent of donor-seeking patients who are unable to find matches through the database, according to the Be The Match Foundation. These patients’ only hope for receiving a match is that a compatible donor will enter the system while they continue their normal course of treatment.

Eric Slater, a friend of Roussotte and her father and an organizer of the event, said that witnessing Roussotte’s life change in the wake of her father’s diagnosis prompted him to become involved in the cause as well.

“In a way, I’m almost glad we went through this because now I’m aware of the need,” he said.

The screening process for a marrow drive is simple and non-invasive. Participants will undergo a basic cheek swab in order to determine their genetic signature, Reese said.

Participants in Friday’s drive will have their blood samples processed and entered into the Be The Match registry so that they can potentially be matched to patients, including Roussotte’s father.