Feb 3, 2008 5:28 pm US/Central
Researchers Seek To Stop Sickle Cell Disease
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Doctors at the University of Chicago are leading the fight against a disease that strikes hard at African-Americans. CBS 2's medical editor Mary Ann Childers reports as Black History Month begins, researchers are trying to find new ways to stop sickle cell disease before it cripples or kills.
Fifteen-year-old Krystal Banks has spent far too much of her young life in the hospital, far too many nights in intensive care, and far too much time in severe pain.
"You know no matter how much pain medicine she gets, either in the hospital or out, it just doesn't take the pain away," said Pamela Banks, Krystal's mother.
Krystal Banks has sickle cell disease, a genetic condition that affects her red blood cells. Instead of being round, they're sickle shaped, and get stuck in her blood vessels – that means oxygen can't get to tissues beyond the block.
"If it's congestion of an artery in the brain, it's a stroke. If it's congestion of a coronary artery, it could be a heart attack," said University of Chicago sickle cell researcher Dr. William McDade.
McDade adds the condition can also lead to kidney failure, and vision or breathing problems.
For years, doctors could do little except give narcotics for pain, or blood transfusions. But now, they've found that stem cell transplants can trigger a person with sickle cell to start producing healthy cells.
So far, the best donors have been siblings, but that could change.
"One of the areas we are working on is actually using a mother or father as a donor," said Dr. John Cunningham, director of U of C's Sickle Cell Disease Program.
Right not, one in eight African-Americans carries the sickle cell gene, one in 500 has the disease. Of those 10 percent die in childhood and most dies in their 40s after a life of pain and illness.
"Imagine a three-year-old having the same weakness that a 60-year-old has who has had a stroke, so you can imagine that they have to carry this throughout their lives," Cunningham said.
Stem cell transplants may be the closest science has come yet to a sickle cell cure, but there's a downside. Cunningham says 500 children have been transplanted nationally and although 90 percent are cured, 10 percent did not survive.
Banks' family is wrestling with those odds; knowing that for Krystal, something as simple as getting a cold, too hot, or too stressed can trigger a pain crisis.
"I'll start off getting a little sick and then it'll get worse and worse and worse," Banks said.
Krystal Banks was in LaRabida, which partners with the University of Chicago, for more than a week because of pain caused by sickle cell disease. Her parents have not yet made a decision about a transplant.
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