UW Med: Cord blood transplant saved woman from rare cancer

Alexes Harris undergoes a cord-blood transplant at UW Medical Center-Montlake in September 2016. Photo by Hedwig Lee

Alexes Harris’ spin classes were starting to feel impossible. During the 20 seconds on and off sprints, she would become breathless.

“I used to always be able to do them, but in 2015 during these exercises, I’d find myself out of breath, as if I was having an asthma attack,” she said. Harris, a University of Washington sociology professor, however, was fit and had no history of asthma.

A year later, she was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer known as myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS. Aggressive chemotherapy initially pushed the cancer into remission in 2016. But the cancer came back; her team turned to a bone marrow transplant as an option.

For Harris, whose father was Black and Filipino, and whose mother was white, finding a match was a challenge.

"We are so underrepresented on the bone marrow registry. Being African American, Asian American, Native American, Latinx — and then if you have any intersections of those identities, we have a very low likelihood of finding matches, something like 20 to 30%," she said.

One clinician suggested a transplant using stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood. She received the cord-blood transfusion and about three weeks later, the transplant was deemed a success. A biopsy that December showed no sign of cancer.

“The donated cord blood from the baby girl saved my life,” Harris said. “It was an amazing experience to know that, on the first day of her life, this baby saved mine because of this donation.”

This fall, the UW Medical Center-Montlake restarted its cord blood donation program in partnership with Bloodworks Northwest. Harris hopes more mothers will consider donating their baby’s cord blood.

“What better way to start your baby’s life than saving someone else’s?”

Find out more about the importance of donating cord blood for transplant recipients fighting cancer in this news item