Blood cancers such as leukemia or bone cancers used to be considered fatal. Without a mass removable through surgery, how could such neoplasms be effectively treated? In 1956, a new era in this branch of medicine dawned with the first bone marrow transplant that saved the life of a young New York woman with leukemia.
Today, about 18,000 American lives, many of them children, teenagers, and young and middle-aged adults, are saved each year through this procedure that has become largely routine. In some cases, bone marrow may be sourced from other healthy sites in a patient’s body. And in others, family members are sufficient donors. But in 70% of cases, donors must be sourced outside of the patient’s family. In recent years, the vast majority of transplants are done through peripheral blood stem cell, a process akin to a blood transfusion, making the process simpler and safer.
A decade ago, Wanda Zimmer, wife of Cal State Fullerton College of Business and Economics Professor of Marketing Emeritus Robert Zimmer, received a lifesaving bone marrow transplant matched through the National Marrow Donor Program.
“Through the selfless gift of a stranger’s stem cells, I reclaimed my future,” said Wanda. “I’ll be forever grateful to my donor, Aaron, and to the program that made my survival possible.”
As a way of giving back and to make similar miracles possible for others, Robert worked with his colleagues to create a research opportunity for Cal State Fullerton students to enhance the organization’s outreach to college students.
Read more in this CSUF Business News article.