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Drs. Dansey and Klein received funding to study rare blood disorders. |
The J.P. McCarthy Research Foundation, which is dedicated to the investigation and cure of blood disorders, awarded two of its three basic research grants to Wayne State faculty members, Roger Dansey, MD, and Jared Klein, MD. The foundation was established in honor of Detroit’s WJR-AM talk show host J.P. McCarthy who died in 1995 after battling myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).
Both Dr. Dansey and Dr. Klein are studying MDS, which includes a number of clonal disorders of hematopoiesis with impaired maturation and associated cytopenia. It affects approximately one per 100,000 people per year and the only curative therapy is allogeneic transplantation. Associated complication risks including infection, bleeding, and disease recurrence.
Dr. Dansey, associate professor of internal medicine, is conducting a pilot study for a novel autologous peripheral blood stem cell program for patients with poor prognosis MDS who lack an allogeneic donor. Preliminary evidence shows the normal peripheral blood stem cells can be collected during the recovery phase following chemotherapy. According to Dr. Dansey, this raises the possibility that autologous transplantation may be applied as extremely intensive consolidation in patients who achieve a complete remission using polyclonal hematopoietic progenitors to repopulate the ablated bone marrow.
Dr. Klein, associate professor of internal medicine, is investigating CD34 selection for T cell depletion in patients with MDS. His focus is on the use of allogeneic peripheral blood progenitors cells (PBPC) in combination with selection of CD34. PBPC significantly speeds engraftment and increases morbidity, allowing a large number of stem cells to be collected. However, it can also increase the severity and frequency of graft versus host disease. With the addition of CD34 selection, two to three logs of T-cells can be removed from PBPC samples, allowing more successful transplants.
The WSU School of Medicine faculty members each received a one-year $50,000 grant.