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Good Medicine for April 2009

Dear Readers: Welcome to “Good Medicine for Pennsylvania” featuring Peter Lund, MD, chair of the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s Institute for Good Medicine, and his member colleagues sharing general medical information to help you live healthier.

What You CAN Do
How often has someone shared bad news and you respond with, “What can I do to help?” While our intentions are good, we often don’t know just what we can do to make a difference. Since most people who need help rarely ask for it, here are some valuable suggestions that can temporarily ease a burden, improve a life, or even save a life.

Special Gifts
As I write this, 6,000 people in the U.S. are awaiting a bone marrow transplant, including high-school-age Theo Daniels of Carlisle, PA, who has T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. “I've been waiting for a bone marrow transplant since I found out that I initially didn’t go into remission with standard chemo. Since then, I’ve been in an experimental program. The chemo makes me feel lousy and I have to take it every day. The longer I wait, the more medication I have to take which means more days feeling lousy."

Not the way a teenager should be feeling, is it?

A person needing a bone marrow transplant needs to receive marrow or stem cells from someone whose tissue type is close to their own. Because tissue types are inherited, it is more likely that the recipient will find a suitable donor in a brother or sister. Theo's extraordinary challenge is that he was adopted as a baby shortly after his birth in Korea and to date, his birth family has not been located, nor has a match through the National Registry. Unfortunately, minority matches are often difficult to find due to the smaller number of volunteers on the registry.

But, you can do something to help Theo and others. All that is required of you for the Bone Marrow Screening is a cheek swab to determine your tissue type. To start, you would complete a brief health questionnaire and sign a consent form to have your tissue type listed on the National Registry. The process—from start to finish—is completely confidential. There is no cost to register for any ethnic or racial minority. If you were ever identified as a potential match for a patient, the National Marrow Donor Program  representatives would contact you to ask for a blood sample to see if you match well enough to be an actual donor for a patient. If you are indeed a match, you will receive further education about marrow or stem cell donation. A marrow or blood cell transplant is a potentially life-saving treatment for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, and other diseases. A transplant replaces a patient's unhealthy blood cells with healthy blood-forming cells from a volunteer donor.

"Now it's just a waiting game. If I don't stay in remission, then a transplant may be the only chance I have left," says Theo.

Let's give Theo and the others on the list a fighting chance. Take the first step by visiting www.marrow.org and learn how to be placed on the registry.

101 Things You Can Do to Fight Cancer
Every day, approximately 200 Pennsylvania residents will be diagnosed with cancer.¹ Each new diagnosis will bring this response, “What can I do to fight it?” We're partnering again this year with the American Cancer Society to help answer that question. Our list of "101 Things You Can Do to Fight Cancer" includes steps you can take to prevent cancer, or help someone who may have been diagnosed with cancer.

Here are just a few:

• Start or join an employee wellness program.
• Remind your family and friends about regular cancer screenings.
• Volunteer at a cancer treatment center.
• Donate your time and talents to raise money for cancer research.
• Participate in clinical trials. Move (your body).
• Hit the gym, take a walk, whatever for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
• Patronize online auctions that benefit cancer related organizations.
• Sign up for one of the many American Cancer Society educational and support programs.
• Run errands (grocery store, child transportation) for a family facing cancer.
• Register with the National Marrow Donor Program at www.marrow.org.

... and the list goes on. For the complete list, visit www.myfamilywellness.org. Surely you can find something on the list that you can do to fight cancer. Help those already fighting cancer and do your best to live a healthy, cancer-free life.

¹ Pennsylvania Department of Health, Cancer Facts and Figures, Pennsylvania 2008