The interview was very interesting and insightful due to the many challenges that a donor must overcome. It is hard enough to have a sister who has cancer, but to also be the donor is very daunting. From how he described the methods of the transplants and side effects, it seemed both physically and mentally challenging to go through the process. The interviewee mentioned that he had no problem volunteering for the task and would do anything to help his sister even though an allogenic stem cell transplant is a lot to handle.
The reason why we chose this project is because two of our group members personally know people who have this disorder. What makes MDS an important project is that the only known cure is an allogenic stem cell transplant. The most difficult part about the transplant is finding a donor. If there are not family members who match the person with MDS, it can be very hard to find an outside donor would match on all levels. Hopefully through grid computing, an answer can be found to help patients who have no donor matches. Another important reason to
research MDS is that it is very rare in people under the age of 50. Christine
and Emily are the two group members who know people under the age of 25 with
this pre-leukemia. This is especially rare and there are no known causes for
this to occur in healthy, young adults. MDS relates to evolution because there
is a mutation in the bone marrow of people with this disease. This mutation is
not useful and is detrimental to a person’s health. Because there are no know
causes for MDS in young adults, doctors must look to evolution to try and
understand how this cancer has developed to effect younger people who have
never had cancer before.
~Christine Schatz
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