“That doctor gave me four weeks to live,’ House recalled. “I asked him to unhook me from the machines, and I left that day.’  That was 18 years ago.

House was 47 at the time. She had a husband, a teenage daughter and an adult son. She left that Chicago hospital, but did not give up. “In my heart I really didn´t think I would die.’ she said.

Her friend showed her an article in the newspaper about a young doctor at Loyola University Medical Center (Loyola) who was one of the few physicians in the country performing a relatively new procedure: bone marrow transplantation.

During a bone marrow transplant, a person´s malignant bone marrow is destroyed by drugs or radiation and then replaced by healthy bone marrow donated by a sibling or someone who has the same tissue type.

House saw Patrick Stiff, M.D., at Loyola in January 1986. “He is a truly caring doctor. Nothing seemed to be too much to ask,’ she said.

She was one of Stiff´s earliest patients at Loyola. There have been significant advances in the treatment of cancers since that time. According to data from the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry, there has been a 10 percent improvement in survival rates with each decade that bone marrow transplantation has been performed.

Significant progress has been made in finding donors for patients. Stiff and colleagues are continually fine-tuning the process of matching tissue types to improve survival. National donor programs now have millions of potential donors on file thanks to increased awareness of need.

Loyola is one of the few medical centers in the nation that also performs umbilical cord blood transplants on adults.

At Loyola, the program has a dedicated hospital unit and specially trained nurses and physicians who work exclusively with bone marrow transplant patients. Their extensive experience is crucial to Loyola´s better than average success rates. The team performs about 170 bone marrow transplants per year with a 75 percent, 2-year survival rate. “We know what to watch for and how to pre-empt complications when they are just beginning,’ Stiff said.

Research, experience and participation of donors nationwide have led to improved outcomes, yet much more can be done. One impediment to improved outcomes is the lack of awareness and understanding about bone marrow transplantation among the public and the medical profession. “Half of patients who are eligible for bone marrow transplantation are never referred for treatment, and one quarter are referred too late,’ Stiff said. Bone marrow transplantation is not a treatment of last resort to save dying patients. Patients who can benefit most are those for whom other cancer therapies have not been effective but who are in remission from disease, Stiff noted.

House was not an ideal patient in that regard. Her disease was very advanced, which makes her survival all the more remarkable.

The patient´s own spirit is an intangible yet important factor in his or her survival. “There are some people who are fighters,’ Stiff said. “Velma was convinced she would be cured. That kind of attitude is necessary for long-term survival.

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