- Media who wish to cover the reunion’s 10 a.m. press conference
on Friday, May 3, on the Duarte, Calif. campus must R.S.V.P.
At nine years old, Tammy Wang has already survived cancer twice.
She was just four years old when she was diagnosed with leukemia
and received chemotherapy for 2.5 years at City of Hope Children’s
Cancer Center. Just six months after chemotherapy ended, Tammy’s
leukemia returned. Tammy, who is an only child, would need a
transplant to beat the cancer again and put it into long-lasting
remission.
On Aug. 3, 2022, Tammy received bone marrow from a female
college student in the United States. Tammy and her family knew
very little about the young woman who donated, but they were
extremely grateful that the person wanted to donate bone marrow to
a young girl she had never met.
On Friday, May 3, at a 10 a.m. press conference on the cancer
center’s Duarte, California, campus, Tammy and her family will meet
her donor for the first time at City of Hope’s 48th Annual Bone
Marrow Transplant (BMT) Reunion. The BMT Reunion, one of the
largest events of its kind in the nation, continued during the
pandemic with virtual reunions, but this year, more than 3,000
transplant recipients, donors, families, medical staff and others
will converge on City of Hope’s main campus to celebrate another
chance at life.
“We thank patients and donors for allowing us into a very
personal moment in their lives. Patients and their families express
a profound gratitude to donors they are meeting for the first time
for providing bone marrow or stem cells to save a life,” said
Stephen J. Forman, M.D., renowned hematologist and director of City
of Hope’s Hematologic Malignancies Research Institute. “City of
Hope is honored and humbled to be a part of that moment. We also
thank donors for taking part in the selfless act of donation to
save lives.”
For nearly 50 years, City of Hope’s blood stem cell and bone
marrow transplant program has performed more than 19,000
transplants, making it one of the largest programs in the nation.
Early support from its philanthropic partners helped City of Hope
become a leader and pioneer with bone marrow transplant and have
ensured the program’s longevity and success. City of Hope has
exceptional survivor rates year after year, according to the Center
for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research.
Over the years, City of Hope has also helped pioneer several BMT
innovations, including being one of the first institutions to
successfully perform BMTs in older adults and one of the first
worldwide to cure a patient with HIV and leukemia from those
diseases. City of Hope has also had growing success with nonrelated
matched donors and, most recently, half-matched family donors.
Building on its BMT expertise, City of Hope is also a pioneer in
the development of one of the newest immunotherapies to treat
cancer: chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. More than 1,200
patients have been treated with immune effector cells, including
CAR T cell therapy, at City of Hope, which is also leveraging this
form of innovative therapy as a pathway to a successful
transplant.
City of Hope’s blood cancer expertise, including blood and stem
cell transplants, is now available at all its cancer centers
nationwide, bridging existing gaps by expanding access to optimal
cancer care for patients navigating leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and
related hematologic diseases.
A long-awaited day for Tammy and
family
“I have looked forward to this day — to be able to thank Tammy’s
donor for saving her life,” said Yi Wang, 40, Tammy’s mother, about
the upcoming reunion. “Words cannot express what her donation means
to us.”
Tammy was born in the United States but her parents, who are
Chinese, moved back to their homeland when Tammy was a baby. When
Tammy was four, she had a fever for two days. Her parents took her
to a hospital, and they were told that Tammy had leukemia.
“I was upset, shocked, sad, grieving. I refused to believe it. I
felt a sense of helplessness,” Wang said. A friend told her to take
Tammy to City of Hope in the U.S. immediately for treatment. Once
there, Tammy was diagnosed with Philadelphia chromosome-positive
acute lymphoblastic leukemia and started chemotherapy.
“Chemotherapy was very painful for her,” Wang said. “But she was
never depressed. She remained optimistic.”
Nicole Karras, M.D., a City of Hope Children’s Cancer Center
pediatric hematologist, had informed the Wang family that Tammy’s
cancer was a type that would likely return and that she would need
a transplant to put her into lasting remission.
“The doctor said the cure rate with a transplant was very high,
and I had full confidence in what she said,” Wang added.
When her cancer returned, Tammy would first need CAR T cell
therapy to put her into remission. From there she was matched with
a donor and received her lifesaving transplant.
Throughout Tammy’s medical treatment, the family received
support from City of Hope’s Center for International Medicine
(CIM). CIM provides international patients with a dedicated team
that facilitates personalized treatment and supportive care, such
as patient navigators who speak a patient’s language and can guide
them through care.
Wang recalled how very early on the day of Tammy’s transplant, a
CIM patient navigator was already at City of Hope, waiting for the
family and for the procedure to start.
“CIM helped us cope with some very difficult moments, and we are
grateful,” Wang said.
In addition to Tammy and her family meeting her donor, Southern
California resident Terry Greene, 71, who survived chronic
myelomonocytic leukemia, will also meet his international donor, a
24-year-old college student. Greene is Forman’s patient.
People interested in joining a bone marrow/stem cell registry
can join at my.bethematch.org or DKMS.org.
About City of Hope
City of Hope’s mission is to make hope a reality for all touched
by cancer and diabetes. Founded in 1913, City of Hope has grown
into one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations
in the U.S. and one of the leading research centers for diabetes
and other life-threatening illnesses. City of Hope research has
been the basis for numerous breakthrough cancer medicines, as well
as human synthetic insulin and monoclonal antibodies. With an
independent, National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive
cancer center at its core, City of Hope brings a uniquely
integrated model to patients spanning cancer care, research and
development, academics and training, and innovation initiatives.
City of Hope’s growing national system includes its Los Angeles
campus, a network of clinical care locations across Southern
California, a new cancer center in Orange County, California, and
cancer treatment centers and outpatient facilities in the Atlanta,
Chicago and Phoenix areas. City of Hope’s affiliated group of
organizations includes Translational Genomics Research Institute
and AccessHopeTM. For more information about City of Hope, follow
us on Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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Letisia Marquez 626-476-7593 lemarquez@coh.org