Published On: Thu, Jul 22nd, 2010

Stem Cell Transplant Institute offers hope for cancer victims, potential treatments for other diseases

By Dale King and Julia Hebert

BOYNTON BEACH – “Real differences in the quality of cancer care” are taking place at a medical institute in this community just a few miles north of Boca Raton.

The South Florida Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant Institute.

These are significant, life-saving differences, the result of advanced technical research and a medical team leader and institute director schooled and experienced in the varied uses of stem cells.

“Every day, lives are changed as a result of the South Florida Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant Institute,” said Dr. Dipnarine Maharaj during an interview in a conference room inside the medical complex at the corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and Hagen Ranch Road.

This contemporary structure houses high-tech equipment – and hope — for those afflicted with hematological cancers, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia and multiple leukemia.

“Patients are cared for by a team of highly skilled professionals with extensive training and experience in treating cancers that react favorably to stem cell transplants,” said Dr. Maharaj. “This specialized approach helps patients whose cancer has shown little or no response to other methods of treatment.”

In one dramatic case, Dr. Maharaj saved the life of a man whose physicians had given him two days to live.

“The constant studies in science, research and technology have given new hope to patients who, as recently as 10 years ago, may have had none,” said the doctor.  “The treatments are getting more effective, the success rates are getting higher and it’s because doctors like me simply refuse to rest.”

So while the results of the South Florida Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant Institute have already proven to be remarkable, the potential for future use of stem cells to repair and restore organs throughout the entire body keeps gaining momentum.

Some caution is in order as research continues, he said.  The use of stem cell for blood cancers is a Food and Drug Administration approved indication. “In other areas which are still under investigation, the FDA has specific requirements.”

But research into so-called “regenerative medicine” is on the front burner, Dr. Maharaj told the audience during a lecture at Bethesda Hospital in Boynton Beach. He said researchers are already making strides in the use of stem cells “to restore tissue and organ functions.”

Being targeted are illnesses such as congestive heart failure, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, birth defects and diabetes.  A breakthrough in the treatment and potential cure for diabetes could be near, he indicated, impacting 16 million people in the United States and 217 million worldwide.

“We have a long way to go to understand these mechanisms,” he told the crowd at Bethesda. “But we hope it is not in the too distant future.”

He did say stem cells are amazing because when they are injected into the human bloodstream, they find malfunctioning organs or tissues and meld in to correct the problem. As Dr. Maharaj explains, a stem cell is “an unspecific cell that can both self renew (reproduce itself) or differentiate into mature tissue.”

During his lecture at Bethesda, he showed slides of a rat’s brain that had been damaged for experimental purposes. After an injection of stem cells, the damage (shown in brown against the white background of the brain) lessened and eventually disappeared.

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Dr. Maharaj emphasizes he does not use embryonic stem cells.  He feels the best type of cell to use is “autologous” – meaning those taken from a person’s own body.  In fact, he urges everyone to bank their own stem cells while they are healthy.

The best way to “harvest” a person’s own cells is to inject a man or woman with granulocyte colony stimulating factor, which stimulates the body’s production of a particular type of white blood cell.

The resulting mass-produced cells are removed with apparatus similar to a dialysis machine. The patient is attached to the machine through a vein in the arm, and as his or her blood runs through the machine, only the adult stem cells are removed and all the rest of the blood is returned to the patient.

The cells can then be frozen in liquid nitrogen at the Boynton Beach facility and used again if the person becomes ill.  They can be stored for some 20 years or more.

In case a person becomes ill, stem cell donors can be located, but transplanting those cells can have potentially dangerous consequences.  Stem cells from another person’s body might be rejected or cause a serious illness in a patient who receives them.  Dr. Maharaj said the chance of a body rejecting its own stem cells is virtually impossible. “In our experience in the outpatient institute, when using the patient’s own stem cells for blood cancers, the incidence of infection is low,” he added.

Avoiding infection is extremely important, the doctor noted. Cancer patients are at greater risk of infection because of their depressed immune systems.

A person’s own illness – even cancer — isn’t necessarily a barrier to stem cell harvesting, said Dr. Maharaj. The stem cells can be removed, frozen and stored after the patient is treated and achieves remission.   Residual cancer cells can be treated with high doses of chemotherapy and the stem cells are then re-injected into the person. Such treatments for patients with leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphoma and other blood diseases, he said, “have already been proven to be successful.”

Perhaps the best gift a parent can give a newborn is his or her own umbilical cord blood. It is considered “the body’s building blocks of blood and immune systems,” Dr. Maharaj said. “Stem cells have been used to treat many malignant and acquired immune system deficiencies. Leukemia is the most common.”

Born in Trinidad, Dr. Maharaj was educated in Scotland and has a medical degree from the University of Glasgow.  A noted lecturer and innovator, he has earned a multitude of certifications from medical institutions around the world.

Dr. Maharaj developed one of the first completely outpatient bone marrow/stem cell transplantation facilities focusing on superior quality and reduced cost care.  He has also established bone marrow transplant programs at the University of Miami and for other communities in Florida.

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