Jonathan undergoes chemo for transplant
As he continues high-dose chemotherapy in advance of his second stem-cell transplant, Jonathan Pitre is keeping his dog, Gibson, close to his heart.
Pitre, 16, is wearing a glass pendant with a picture of his Boston terrier throughout his days in the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital.
“He says that having it around his neck — except for sleeping — gives him strength even in the darkest moments,” said his mother, Tina Boileau, who had the pendant made for him one day after he entered the hospital.
“It was the only thing he really wanted,” Boileau said.
Pitre is in Minnesota for his second stem-cell transplant, seven months after the first one failed to engraft. Usually, patients undergoing a second transplant so soon after the first do not receive full doses of chemotherapy and radiation because their immune systems are already weakened.
But doctors are taking no chances with Pitre. He’s receiving eight days of high-dose chemotherapy and one day of full-body radiation — the same regimen as his first transplant — to increase the probability of success.
The conditioning regimen is necessary to destroy Pitre’s bone marrow cells so the transplanted cells will have room to grow; it also suppresses Pitre’s immune system so it doesn’t attack the donated stem cells.
Blood tests show Pitre has not developed antibodies to combat another infusion of stem cells from his mother, the original donor. It means Boileau can again serve as the stem cell donor for the transplant on April 13.
As part of the conditioning regimen, doctors are also infusing Pitre with antithymocyte globulin (ATG), a drug designed to further suppress the immune system by acting against specific white blood cells that can attack bone-marrow stem cells.
On Thursday, Pitre was three days into the nine-day regimen. Boileau said he has had a low-grade fever, but otherwise has tolerated the treatment well.
“He is as strong mentally and physically as he can be,” Boileau said. “If anything, he’s fighting even harder this time; he’s really focused on making this transplant work.”
Pitre believes his incredible willpower might be able to operate on a cellular level, and he has vowed to direct his own cells to co-operate with his mother’s stem cells.
Pitre is the first Canadian to take part in the clinical trial operated by the University of Minnesota’s Dr. Jakub Tolar, a pediatric transplant specialist who has adapted stem-cell therapy as a treatment for the most severe forms of epidermolysis bullosa (EB).
Pitre suffers from recessive dystrophic EB, a rare, painful and deadly form of the blistering skin disease.
Although the transplant can be accompanied by life-threatening complications, it is the only EB treatment that holds the potential to dramatically improve the condition.