Moffitt researchers say race affect likelihood of finding suitable stem cell donor

Public release date: 11-Sep-2012
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Contact: Kim Polacek
kim.polacek@moffitt.org
813-745-7408
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have published a study describing the greater difficulty in finding matched, unrelated donors for non-Caucasian patients who are candidates for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).

The study appeared in the August issue of Bone Marrow Transplantation.

The success of HCT depends on finding cell donors who are closely matched genetically; as the degree of mismatching increases, the success of unrelated donor HCT falls accordingly. A patient's ideal donor is a genetically matched sibling.

The search for a perfectly matched donor for all groups takes time and affects the progression to transplantation. The National Marrow Donor Program estimates that the genetically matched donor rate is 90 percent for Caucasian patients, 70 percent for Hispanics and Asians, and 60 percent for those of African ancestry.

"Using unrelated adult donors to facilitate HCT has provided major opportunities for patients without a matched sibling donor. In fact, the rate of unrelated donors now exceeds the rate of related donor HCT," said Joseph Pidala, M.D., M.S., assistant member of Moffitt's Blood & Marrow Transplant Department and a member of the Immunology Program. "Using data available at Moffitt, we sought to describe the determinants of a successful, unrelated donor search and to explore the contribution of donor identification versus patient characteristics leading to successful transplantation outcome."

According to Pidala, many patients can achieve prolonged, condition-free survival after unrelated donor HCT. There is, however, a need to understand "modifiable factors" that limit access to unrelated donor HCT.

The researchers concluded that the difficulties in finding well-matched donors in some minority groups were likely related to the degree of genetic heterogeneity within those groups, as well as their underrepresentation in donor pools.

They concluded that when compared to Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans have greater difficulty in finding a suitably matched unrelated donor, and less likelihood of successfully reaching HCT. Other barriers to HCT include age and disease progression.

"This research speaks to the need for reducing the time from HCT consultation to donor identification and HCT," Pidala said. "Survival benefit for HCT is dependent upon finding a suitable donor in a timely manner and addressing modifiable barriers to reaching HCT."

"Our data are consistent with the expectation that if suitable unrelated donors could be more expeditiously identified, patient outcomes would improve, particularly for racial and ethnic minorities and for patients with better performance status," concluded Pidala and his colleagues. "Increased representation of ethnic minorities within unrelated donor registries will increase the likelihood of finding a suitable donor."

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About Moffitt Cancer Center

Located in Tampa, Moffitt is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research, its contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer. With more than 4,200 employees, Moffitt has an economic impact on the state of nearly $2 billion. For more information, visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the Moffitt momentum on Facebook, twitter and YouTube.

Media release by Florida Science Communications

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Public release date: 11-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kim Polacek
kim.polacek@moffitt.org
813-745-7408
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have published a study describing the greater difficulty in finding matched, unrelated donors for non-Caucasian patients who are candidates for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).

The study appeared in the August issue of Bone Marrow Transplantation.

The success of HCT depends on finding cell donors who are closely matched genetically; as the degree of mismatching increases, the success of unrelated donor HCT falls accordingly. A patient's ideal donor is a genetically matched sibling.

The search for a perfectly matched donor for all groups takes time and affects the progression to transplantation. The National Marrow Donor Program estimates that the genetically matched donor rate is 90 percent for Caucasian patients, 70 percent for Hispanics and Asians, and 60 percent for those of African ancestry.

"Using unrelated adult donors to facilitate HCT has provided major opportunities for patients without a matched sibling donor. In fact, the rate of unrelated donors now exceeds the rate of related donor HCT," said Joseph Pidala, M.D., M.S., assistant member of Moffitt's Blood & Marrow Transplant Department and a member of the Immunology Program. "Using data available at Moffitt, we sought to describe the determinants of a successful, unrelated donor search and to explore the contribution of donor identification versus patient characteristics leading to successful transplantation outcome."

According to Pidala, many patients can achieve prolonged, condition-free survival after unrelated donor HCT. There is, however, a need to understand "modifiable factors" that limit access to unrelated donor HCT.

The researchers concluded that the difficulties in finding well-matched donors in some minority groups were likely related to the degree of genetic heterogeneity within those groups, as well as their underrepresentation in donor pools.

They concluded that when compared to Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans have greater difficulty in finding a suitably matched unrelated donor, and less likelihood of successfully reaching HCT. Other barriers to HCT include age and disease progression.

"This research speaks to the need for reducing the time from HCT consultation to donor identification and HCT," Pidala said. "Survival benefit for HCT is dependent upon finding a suitable donor in a timely manner and addressing modifiable barriers to reaching HCT."

"Our data are consistent with the expectation that if suitable unrelated donors could be more expeditiously identified, patient outcomes would improve, particularly for racial and ethnic minorities and for patients with better performance status," concluded Pidala and his colleagues. "Increased representation of ethnic minorities within unrelated donor registries will increase the likelihood of finding a suitable donor."

###

About Moffitt Cancer Center

Located in Tampa, Moffitt is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research, its contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer. With more than 4,200 employees, Moffitt has an economic impact on the state of nearly $2 billion. For more information, visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the Moffitt momentum on Facebook, twitter and YouTube.

Media release by Florida Science Communications

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/hlmc-mrs091012.php

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Literary masterpiece 'Infinite Jest' visualized in Google map

7 hrs.

Teressa Iezzi , Fast Company

David Foster Wallace fans: Put down your copy of D.T. Max?s newly released biography of the writer, Every Love Story Is A Ghost Story and click immediately on Infinite Atlas. Non-fans, stop whatever it is you?re doing and do the same.

Infinite Atlas is, in the simplest terms, "an independent research and art project seeking to identify, place and describe every possible location in David Foster Wallace?s 'Infinite Jest.'" In broader terms, it?s an infinitely absorbing marriage of literature and rich location-based data.

The map is the work of Washington-based writer, and dedicated "Infinite Jest" fan, William Beutler.

Beutler actually launched the project earlier this year in the form of Infinite Boston, a blog-based photographic tour of locations that figure into DFW?s complex study of life, addiction, depression, failed entertainment, and tennis. At the time Beutler wrote: "In July of what might have been Year of Glad, one year ago this week, I traveled to Boston, Massachusetts with the express purpose of visiting as many of the landmarks and lesser known precincts that appear in, or provide inspiration for, the late David Foster Wallace?s 1996 novel "Infinite Jest" as I could manage on a Thursday-Sunday trip. My reasons for doing so will become apparent at a later date, but for now I am pleased to present what I am calling Infinite Boston: a ruminative travelogue and photographic tour of some fifty or so of these locations, comprising one entry each non-holiday weekday, from now until sometime in early autumn."

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That later date has arrived and we now have the Infinite Atlas, a mind-bendingly detailed Google Maps-based compendium of over 600 IJ locations. Visitors can click on the map to reveal details about each location from the novel, in many cases including quotes, as well as where the site appears in the book and which characters are associated with it (and Beutler hasn?t just covered off your A-list places, like Enfield Tennis Academy and Ennet House. To wit: the listing for Marty?s Liquors, "Which Gately drives past in Pat Montesian?s black 1964 Ford Aventura"). Locations can also be discovered via search, and through a comprehensive lists of characters (again, we?re not just talking about Hal Incandenza and Michael Pemulis--the list includes everyone down to "the Watertown, NY boy who owned Ward and June, progenitors of the Concavity?s feral hamsters") and story threads. Fans are also encouraged to submit photographs of the locations.

The project also includes a poster version of IJ sites, the Infinite Map, available for purchase here. The map depicts the novel?s ?territorially reconfigured North America? and features 250 of its most interesting locations (as well as the Great Seal of O.N.A.N., pictured above).

Beutler, who had worked as a political journalist and is now a communications consultant, says the project has been four years in the making. "I re-read Infinite Jest after Wallace?s passing, and became obsessed with the idea that there was a way to treat Infinite Jest as a very large data set," he says. "It turned out that others had done so previously, the designer Sam Potts in particular, but with a primary focus on the relationship between characters. So I didn?t want to retrace that route. Meanwhile, I was influenced by friends involved in cartography, and I?ve always found maps to be fascinating, so both of these things pushed me in this direction."

At first, a map of locations was just one of many ideas, he says. "At one point I was going to include box scores for the Enfield Tennis Academy players, but the further I got into research, the more I realized how much more there was to do with geography."

The scope of the project meant Beutler brought in a number of creative partners, including agency JESS3 and DC web development company RedEdge, which helped bring the interactive map to life.

When it came to compiling the project?s staggering volume of data, Beutler had additional help. "A lot of the early research was compiled by a friend from back to college, named Olly Ruff, who had also first read Infinite Jest years ago," he says. "We each spent dozens of hours combing through the book, page-by-page, in late 2010 to make sure that we missed nothing, and to argue about what was where and what was the significance. We had those conversations right up to the point where we had to send it off to the printer. The early information architecture was done by another friend, Lyzi Diamond, who had recently earned a degree in Geography from the University of Oregon. Our eventual cartographer was Derek Watkins, who is now a graphics editor at the New York Times."

As for Beutler?s plans for the project, he says, "I?m really hoping to get readers to upload photographs of locations that I haven?t visited--and considering the scope of the project is global, that?s still most places. Otherwise, there are still some details to correct--our database is very good, but not free of noise--so that will take me some time to iron out the details. Even as I say that, I think the site is about 95% correct. It always takes a lot more effort to improve from there, but I?m just enough perfectionist, and just enough a fan of "Infinite Jest" to stick with it."

Teressa Iezzi is the editor of Fast Company's?Co.Create.?She was previously editor of Ad Age?s Creativity and is the author of "The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era." Follow her on Twitter.

This story originally appeared on Fast Company's Co.Create site.

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/infinite-atlas-location-based-visualization-literary-masterpiece-987854

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