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ARMENIAN BONE MARROW DONOR REGISTRY HONORS STUART SIEGEL, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
The Beverly Hills Courier, CA
July 23 2013
Posted Tuesday, July 23, 2013-12:45 pm
Last week the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) presented
Stuart Siegel, M.D., of Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA),
with the "Establishment of the Year" award at its annual gala at the
Hilton Glendale.
Siegel and his colleague, Neena Kapoor, M.D., director of the
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Program, were instrumental in
helping establish the first autologous transplant program in Yerevan,
the capital of Armenia.
"I am honored to accept this award on behalf of Children's Hospital.
We have been pleased and grateful to share in this amazing work that
has come so far in meeting the needs of Armenian children who need
hematopoietic stem cell transplants," said Siegel, founding director
of the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases.
Children receiving intensive chemotherapy as well as children with
certain immunological or blood disorders, may require a stem-cell
transplant. During the transplant, immature blood-forming cells,
called hematopoietic stem cells, are given to the child to "rebuild"
his or her immune system. The harvested cells travel into the bone
marrow, where they will mature and develop into healthy red blood
cells, white blood cells and platelets.
Since transplants ideally require both the donor and recipient carry
the same inherited tissue type, it can be difficult to identify a donor
outside a patient's immediate family. The most successful alternative
is to search for patient-donor compatibility in an ethnically-similar
population that shares these inherited tissue types.
With the goal of easing the emotional and physical burden placed on
critically ill patients, Frieda Jordan, Ph.D., together with Sevak
Avagyan, M.D., started the ABMDR in 1999 to identify genetic matches
for Armenians.
Siegel, Kapoor and the CHLA hematopoietic stem-cell transplant team
began working with ABMDR in 2001 as they developed the registry.
In 2012, the ABMDR sought the help of Siegel and his colleagues to
equip Yerevan with the technological and educational means needed to
perform autologous transplantation procedures in Armenia. This type
of transplant harvests the patient's own healthy hematopoietic cells
before cancer treatments, and later returns them to the patient to
replace the bone marrow cells damaged by chemotherapy and radiation.
With the help of Siegel, visiting physicians Andranik Mshetsyan, M.D..,
and Armond Mehdikhanian, M.D., were taught necessary procedures that
would bring this essential treatment option to Armenia.
Mshetsyan received guidance from Robert Seeger, M.D., director of
the Cancer Program at The Saban Research Institute, and trained in
Kapoor's lab, where he perfected the techniques of cell harvesting,
processing and freezing.
At the conclusion of his stay at Children's Hospital, Mshetsyan
performed Armenia's first autologous stem-cell transplant.
"Dr. Siegel was truly a mentor to us, providing a vision for this
most important work. We are also grateful to Dr. Neena Kapoor and her
CHLA team for helping us implement an autologous transplant program
in Armenia," said Jordan, now president of the Armenian Bone Marrow
Donor Registry.
For more information on the registry, visit www.abmdr.am.
http://bhcourier.com/armenian-bone-marrow-donor-registry-honors-stuart-siegel-childrens-hospital/2013/07/23
The Beverly Hills Courier, CA
July 23 2013
Posted Tuesday, July 23, 2013-12:45 pm
Last week the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) presented
Stuart Siegel, M.D., of Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA),
with the "Establishment of the Year" award at its annual gala at the
Hilton Glendale.
Siegel and his colleague, Neena Kapoor, M.D., director of the
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Program, were instrumental in
helping establish the first autologous transplant program in Yerevan,
the capital of Armenia.
"I am honored to accept this award on behalf of Children's Hospital.
We have been pleased and grateful to share in this amazing work that
has come so far in meeting the needs of Armenian children who need
hematopoietic stem cell transplants," said Siegel, founding director
of the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases.
Children receiving intensive chemotherapy as well as children with
certain immunological or blood disorders, may require a stem-cell
transplant. During the transplant, immature blood-forming cells,
called hematopoietic stem cells, are given to the child to "rebuild"
his or her immune system. The harvested cells travel into the bone
marrow, where they will mature and develop into healthy red blood
cells, white blood cells and platelets.
Since transplants ideally require both the donor and recipient carry
the same inherited tissue type, it can be difficult to identify a donor
outside a patient's immediate family. The most successful alternative
is to search for patient-donor compatibility in an ethnically-similar
population that shares these inherited tissue types.
With the goal of easing the emotional and physical burden placed on
critically ill patients, Frieda Jordan, Ph.D., together with Sevak
Avagyan, M.D., started the ABMDR in 1999 to identify genetic matches
for Armenians.
Siegel, Kapoor and the CHLA hematopoietic stem-cell transplant team
began working with ABMDR in 2001 as they developed the registry.
In 2012, the ABMDR sought the help of Siegel and his colleagues to
equip Yerevan with the technological and educational means needed to
perform autologous transplantation procedures in Armenia. This type
of transplant harvests the patient's own healthy hematopoietic cells
before cancer treatments, and later returns them to the patient to
replace the bone marrow cells damaged by chemotherapy and radiation.
With the help of Siegel, visiting physicians Andranik Mshetsyan, M.D..,
and Armond Mehdikhanian, M.D., were taught necessary procedures that
would bring this essential treatment option to Armenia.
Mshetsyan received guidance from Robert Seeger, M.D., director of
the Cancer Program at The Saban Research Institute, and trained in
Kapoor's lab, where he perfected the techniques of cell harvesting,
processing and freezing.
At the conclusion of his stay at Children's Hospital, Mshetsyan
performed Armenia's first autologous stem-cell transplant.
"Dr. Siegel was truly a mentor to us, providing a vision for this
most important work. We are also grateful to Dr. Neena Kapoor and her
CHLA team for helping us implement an autologous transplant program
in Armenia," said Jordan, now president of the Armenian Bone Marrow
Donor Registry.
For more information on the registry, visit www.abmdr.am.
http://bhcourier.com/armenian-bone-marrow-donor-registry-honors-stuart-siegel-childrens-hospital/2013/07/23