"Jessie Quinn of Sacramento was  years old when loss of appetite weight loss some eye issues and finally pelvic pain sent her to the emergency room in . Tests quickly revealed she had acute myeloid leukemia  a type of blood cancer that progresses quickly  and doctors told her that chemotherapy would probably not be enough she would need a bonemarrow transplant.  Quinn who has a science background knew that finding a donor would be difficult. In college she had donated to a bonemarrow registry after learning that people like her with a mixed racial heritage have a much harder time than others finding a match. In fact when she and her doctors scoured the registry for a match for her only one name came up her own. I didnt know whether to laugh or cry Quinn said. While searching unsuccessfully for a match for five months Quinn underwent four cycles of chemotherapy to keep the leukemia at bay. What eventually saved her though was an experimental transplant using stem cells from the blood of a babys umbilical cord an approach that can be used without perfectly matching blood types. This therapy and another  haploidentical transplantation http_cancer_centercentersbone_marrow_transplanthaploidentical_transplantation.html which uses bonemarrow cells that are only halfmatched to a patient  have revolutionized the treatment of blood cancers in the past few years. Every biological child is a halfmatch for a parent and vice versa. Many patients who previously died for lack of a match are now cured of their underlying malignancy said Richard Jones director of the bonemarrow transplant program at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. A dangerous process Bonemarrow transplants which infuse healthy blood cells taken from a donor are used when chemotherapy and radiation fail to stop cancerous blood cells from taking over and ultimately destroying a persons immune system.  The transplant can be taken from either the blood or bone marrow which produces blood cells. The procedure is typically preceded by high doses of chemotherapy and radiation that wipe out the patients faulty blood cells and replace them with healthy ones from a donor.  The process is dangerous because it leaves a patient vulnerable to lifethreatening infection for months before the reconstituted immune system begins to work.  In the past a patients body would reject as a foreign intruder anything but a perfect or nearperfect match a usually fatal development. Umbilicalcord stem cells however are sort of a blank slate because they havent been exposed to much life  such as bacteria and viruses  and thus are more easily accepted even if they arent a perfect match.  When Quinns doctors found no match on the donor registry she turned to a clinical trial examining the safety of taking blood cells from umbilical cords expanding their numbers in a laboratory and then infusing them into patients. Because each umbilical cord produces only a tiny number of stem cells umbilicalcord transplants take longer to work than standard transplants which makes patients more likely to get fatal infections. And if cells from several umbilical cords are used the chances of immunity problems increase.  This expanded cordblood technique has been a huge home run for patients said Colleen Delaney of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle who helped create it.  No one had successfully taken stem cells and gotten them to grow and put back in a person she said. The advance should be particularly valuable for minorities and people of mixedrace background whose chances of finding a matched donor were slim to none. This is where cord blood becomes an amazing and beautiful resource Delaney said. We can find cordblood donors for  percent of patients who cannot find a donor. Quinn was hospitalized for  days and she said the recovery was difficult but relatively uneventful. Mostly she had to deal with overwhelming fatigue for the first year. She also developed graftversushost disease which caused rashes when her skin was exposed to the sun. But she has been free of cancer for five years. She remembers learning that she had leukemia and assuming that she would soon die. It still gives me pause  I went to Costa Rica  that I am able to travel and went backpacking and kayaking Quinn says. I was so sure I would never get to do those things again. Its an indescribable feeling. In haploidential transplants rather than wiping out the patients immune system doctors use just enough drugs to suppress it. This reduces the risk of damaging organs or causing a rejection of the donated marrow. Everybody now has a donor Parents are always haploidentical. Children are always haploidentical Jones said. Siblings are half the time and all seconddegree relatives grandchildren nieces nephews have a  percent chance of being a halfmatch. ... Everybody now has a donor and that is a major advance.  Yet doctors and patients may not be aware there are choices other than conventional bonemarrow transplants Jones said.  Despite the recent data httpjco.ascopubs.orgcontentearlyJCO... showing equivalency of halfmatched and cordblood transplants with conventional matched transplants many cancer doctors and even some transplant doctors still consider these newer transplants not standard practice Jones said. There are still lots of patients in need of transplants that are not getting them because of lack of matched donors and that is unacceptable in the year .  Jones estimates that about  transplants of donated stem cells were done in   primarily for leukemia and lymphoma but also for nonmalignant blood disorders such as sickle cell and aplastic anemia  but that more than  could easily be done annually if more doctors embraced the new methods now available.  Gregg Gordon  developed leukemia in . He noticed two bumps under his shin and had been feeling unusually tired. He went to his internist who drew blood and within  hours Gordon was in the hospital receiving chemotherapy.  His wife Caryn recalls how little they knew about his disease  acute myeloid leukemia  as doctors discussed treatment with them. We knew it would be a very long journey to battle this disease Caryn Gordon said. He decided he would be focused on being the patient and said Do whatever you have to do with me because I want to walk my girls who were then  and  down the aisle.  On advice of their hematologist the Gordons traveled to Hutchinson which has established a national reputation as a bonemarrow transplant center but quickly discovered there was no good donor match. We thought we would find a match. It was extraordinarily shocking to us that it was impossible Caryn recalled. According to Be the Match which operates the national donor program a patients likelihood of finding a donor match on their registry ranges from  to  percent depending on ethnic background. But Gregg Gordon was able to participate in Delaneys clinical trial and like Quinn received labexpanded cord blood following intensive chemotherapy and radiation. He also will be five years cancerfree in September.  Not everyone is as lucky. Quinn Gordon and  other participants in Delaneys clinical trial are all alive in remission at a median age of about . years the researcher said but two patients died when the disease relapsed.  A larger trial using umbilical cord blood that had been expanded in a lab is underway."