http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_473 3445,00.html Stem cells, an injection of hope Justin Fox Burks/Special to The Commercial Appeal Lee, hoping for an answer. Music legend first adult in state with transplant By Mary Powers Contact May 28, 2006 The patient's last best hope for a cure was the size and thickness of half a graham cracker and frozen to minus 220 degrees when it arrived outside his Memphis hospital room. Stored inside the plastic pouch were about two tablespoons of stem cells collected from a donated umbilical cord and stored frozen in New York. Patient Arthur Lee and his doctors hope they will accomplish what three earlier rounds of chemotherapy failed to do -- eradicate Lee's leukemia and save his life. On Thursday, Lee, 61, became the first adult in the state to undergo a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from an umbilical cord. Until now such transplants in Tennessee involved children being treated at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Vanderbilt is in the final stages of preparing for its first adult transplant. Although roughly 6,000 cord blood transplants have been done since 1988, most bone marrow transplants still rely on stem cells harvested from a person -- either the patient, a relative or a genetically similar living donor. That wasn't an option for Lee, a Memphis native known to music fans as the founder and driving force behind the band Love. So about three weeks after doctors identified cord blood cells that were an acceptable genetic match for Lee, the transplant occurred on the fourth floor of Methodist University Hospital's cancer wing. The hospital staff and University of Tennessee Cancer Institute doctors took less than 30 minutes to thaw the cells, transfer them to an oversized syringe and then watch as Dr. Rajneesh Nath slowly emptied them into a line that fed into a vein under Lee's collar bone. "How are you doing?" Nath asked as he completed the procedure. "Fine," said Lee, who was struggling to keep his eyes open after receiving Benadryl and other medications to reduce the risk of an allergic reaction. "I can feel what it's doing. It's like a burning sensation." Nath explained that the burning along with the seafood taste Lee reported were caused by a preservative added to the donor cells. Nath directs the cancer institute's hematology program. The transplant came more than three months after Lee was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and a week after he started treatment with anti-cancer drugs so powerful they killed his own healthy bone marrow along with the leukemia cells. Ideally, the stem cells infused Thursday will find their way to space inside Lee's bones where they will set to work rebuilding his blood and immune system. Doctors are counting on that new immune system to be even better than the one Lee was born with at recognizing and destroying any lingering cancer cells. It will likely take 35 to 40 days before doctors know whether the new cells have survived and are rebuilding his immune system. The risk of death remains high for the first 100 days after the transplant. "There is a high risk of (cancer) relapse for two years," said Nath, who five years ago performed Michigan's first cord blood stem cell transplant. That patient, who was also battling AML, is still alive. Doctors estimate Lee has a 10 to 20 percent chance of long-term survival. "If we don't do the transplant his chances of surviving are zero percent," said Dr. Furhan Yunus, cancer institute transplant program director. Without cord blood, Nath said it is unlikely Lee would have undergone a transplant because he probably wouldn't have survived long enough to find a living donor. But he said Lee's recovery will likely take longer because cord blood was involved and even if he would likely benefit from a larger infusion of stem cells, that's not an option. Lee's voice was soft and his energy depleted during Thursday's transplant. But that's him on page 20 of the May issue of Mojo, a British music magazine. He's pictured looking as dramatic as his reputation, which dates from the 1960s when Lee and the band were in the forefront of psychedelic music. He's surrounded by the six Memphis musicians recruited late last year for a reincarnation of the band whose 1967 album Forever Changes, turned up at No. 40 on Rolling Stone magazine's latest listing of top 500 albums of all time. Lee wrote most of the band's songs and also sang, played drums, organ and guitar. "There are certain records where everything about the record is just perfect. That (Forever Changes) is just one of those records, just top to bottom, from the first song to the last," said Greg Roberson, the Memphis musician who helped put together the new band. Lee was born in Memphis and returned to the city last summer after the death of his mother and aunt left their Memphis home vacant. Before Lee got sick, there was talk of performing and recording. Lee hasn't written much since then. "I don't want to fill my head with music I can't do anything about," he explained from his hospital bed the day he started chemotherapy. He started telling stories instead -- of being feted by members of Britain's Parliament, friendships with musicians like Robert Plant and getting married recently for the first time to a woman he's known for 35 years. "All kinds of things I've had to deal with in my life," Lee said. "It is much better the way I've known life. Those hardships make things easier. "But for this disease I never would have known I was loved this much." -- Mary Powers: 529-2383 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Cord Blood Transplants More than 78,000 parents have donated umbilical cords to an estimated 26 cord blood banks worldwide. There is no charge to donors. The donated cells are made available anonymously to patients worldwide who are a close genetic match and undergoing treatment for cancer or other blood disorders. Cord blood can also be stored in private banks for a family's possible future use. For more information about umbilical cord blood donations or transplants contact: The National Marrow Donor Program, (800) 627-7692 or marrow.org The National Cord Blood Program at New York Blood Center, nationalcordbloodprogram.org Arthur Lee Benefits Until his recent marriage, Lee lacked health insurance and has medical bills exceeding $100,000. At least three benefit concerts have been scheduled this summer to raise money to help pay the cost of his care. They include a June 8 concert in Dublin, Ireland, and a June 23 event at Beacon Theater in Manhattan, with headliners Robert Plant, Nils Lofgren, Yo La Tengo and Ryan Adams. Greg Roberson, a Memphis musician, said he also is organizing a Memphis benefit for later this summer.
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i hope there's more footage somewhere. i also hope Edan gives Arthur Lee back his hair.
I don't know if it ever made it to Youtube, but a videotape of Love's 1966 appearance on American Bandstand has been making the rounds...