New lupus treatment delights patients

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New lupus treatment delights patients, docs: 'I feel like a totally

by Jim Ritter, Chicago Sun-Times > Feb 2006

In what might be the first effective new lupus treatment in nearly

40 years, Northwestern Memorial Hospital researchers are rebooting

immune systems that have gone haywire.

Lupus occurs when the immune system attacks healthy cells, causing

everything from skin rashes to seizures. The experimental treatment

destroys the immune system with high-dose chemotherapy, then

regenerates a new immune system with healthy stem cells.

Northwestern is testing similar stem cell transplants on other

immune system disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple

sclerosis, Crohn's disease, vasculitis and scleroderma.

In the lupus study, led by Dr. Burt, researchers did stem

cell transplants on 50 patients who had the most severe form of the

disease. At five years, 84 percent of patients were still alive and

50 percent were disease-free. The study is published in the Journal

of the American Medical Association.

" I never would have predicted they would have done so well, " said

Dr. Joan Merrill, medical director of the Lupus Foundation of

America. " I'm thrilled. "

Merrill added, however, that the study is preliminary. What's needed

now is a head-to-head study comparing stem cell transplants with

other lupus treatments.

Edjuana Ross, 33, of Park Forest, is one of the success stories.

Before undergoing a stem cell transplant in 2003, she was given less

than five years to live. A heart infection left her short of breath,

and inflamed blood vessels in her brain caused terrible headaches

and three mini-strokes. Ross' skin was scarred and bruised and she

was so tired she slept 12 hours a day. And she gained about 100

pounds from immune-suppressing drugs.

'I'M NO LONGER SICK AND TIRED'

Doctors removed stem cells from her blood and froze them. Ross then

underwent 10 days of intense chemotherapy that destroyed the

defective white blood cells.

After chemotherapy, doctors thawed the stem cells and put them back

in the blood, where they developed into healthy white blood cells.

Ross spent 2oe months in the hospital and had several setbacks. But

within a year, virtually all of her lupus symptoms had gone away,

and she lost the excess weight.

" I feel like a totally different person, " she said. " I'm no longer

sick and tired. "

But it's too early to pronounce Ross or any other patient cured,

Burt said. It's possible the disease could bounce back in the years

ahead.

" I don't think we have got to home base, " Burt said. " But we have

got to third. "

As many as 1.5 million Americans, typically young women, have lupus.

The disease ranges from mild to life-threatening.

Stem cell transplants typically cost about $100,000. The patients

who would benefit the most are the 5 percent to 10 percent who have

the worst symptoms and have failed all other treatments, Burt said.