1992

​

STOP! Supports Research in the Magnetic Purging Technique at the University of Florida’ s Pediatric Research Center

 

In the last several decades, advances in childhood cancer therapies and treatments have been dramatic and numerous. STOP! has been instrumental in supporting the development of one of these advances in particular—the Magnetic Purging Technique at the University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida). 

This ground-breaking technique involves removing a small sample of bone marrow from a patient, and then coating the cancer cells in the bone marrow with special laboratory-produced antibodies. The coated marrow is then passed through a magnet-lined chamber, which contains magnetic antibody-coated beads that act like guided missiles seeking out at attaching to the antibody-coated cancer cells in the patient’s marrow. This process separates the cancer cells from the healthy cells in the patient’s marrow. After the marrow undergoes this process, the purified marrow is returned to the patient’s body to replenish vital blood cells killed during treatment. 

Because the patient serves as his or her own bone marrow donor, there is neither a wait for a compatible marrow donation, nor the harmful side-effects anticipated when another person is used as a donor. 

Cancer survival statistics have risen dramatically in the last 10 years; certain diseases such as leukemia have an overall survival rate exceeding 50% due to these advances in bone marrow transplantation via Magnetic Purging.