Millions are tuning into March Madness these days and among the stars they are watching are Duke University freshmen Cameron and Cayden Boozer, the sons of former NBA player Carlos Boozer and his wife, CeCe. Their story began long before they ever touched a basketball. Conceived to be a perfect genetic match, their cord blood was used to cure their older brother, Carmani, of sickle cell disease (SCD).
Their story was the pinnacle of hope in 2008—a cure made possible by a sibling donor. Cord blood is an effective, established stem cell source used in hematopoietic stem cell transplants, often called bone marrow transplants, to cure sickle cell disease.
"A bone marrow transplant from a matched sibling, the very procedure that cured Carmani Boozer, has been the gold standard and a true miracle for families for over two decades. It works by completely replacing the patient's faulty blood-forming system with a healthy one from a donor,” said pediatric hematologist-oncologist Christine Camacho-Bydume, MD. “Our program's experience in performing these complex transplants is the foundation upon which new gene therapies are built. You cannot have one without the expertise of the other."
Tomorrow, as the Boozers chase a national title against St. John's University, the next chapter in curing this devastating disease is unfolding at Hackensack Meridian _Health_ where bone marrow has been a standard curative treatment for more than 20 years, and most recently, one of the hospitals in the state’s largest network discharged the first patient in New Jersey to receive curative gene therapy treatment using Lyfgenia™, a newly FDA-approved gene therapy. Pediatric hematologists-oncologists at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center treated Gerald Quartey, now a freshman at Penn State University,
The revolutionary breakthrough of Lyfgenia is that the one-time therapy uses a patient's own genetically modified stem cells to create a cure, completely eliminating the need for a sibling donor -as in the case of the Boozer brothers.
This is not just a sports story, but a timely, uplifting story about miracles.
While March Madness highlights the "Boozer method"—the best-case scenario of the past - Hackensack Meridian _Health_ patient Gerald represents the future. His cure didn't require a donor, making it a possibility for countless patients who don't have a family match.
* Hackensack Meridian _Health_ has been a leader in both eras of sickle cell curative treatments. For more than 20 years, they have performed the donor-based transplants that cured Carmani Boozer. Now, as a New Jersey Qualified Treatment Center for Lyfgenia, they are once again pioneers in the future of sickle cell treatment.
* Like the Boozers, Gerald's family has been deeply impacted by sickle cell; his older brother died from the disease. For his mother, Evelyn, this new therapy is the answer to a two-decade prayer and was the ultimate Mother's Day gift.
While the Boozer brothers' journey to March Madness is a story of athletic destiny, Gerald's story is one of scientific destiny—a cure that was once science fiction is reality.
"The Boozer story perfectly illustrates the power of a bone marrow transplant. It has been, and remains, a life-saving cure. What's so exciting is that we are no longer limited to it,” adds hematologist-oncologist Stacey Rifkin-Zenenberg, DO, MS, FAAP, FAAHPM. “Our deep experience with traditional transplants has given us the essential knowledge to pioneer the next frontier. We now have multiple ways to achieve the same goal: giving a child a life free from sickle cell disease. It’s about having more tools to offer hope to every single family."