PATIENT care
ADVENTURES WITH PHRED:
stem cell transplant resets body’s immune system
BY AMBER SMITH
DOUG REICHER, 65, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia last summer. His treatment at Upstate University Hospital began with intravenous chemotherapy, which meant he would need to be connected to a device on an IV pole that would keep the medications flowing. “He has named it Phred and dressed him up a bit. Notice Phred’s snazzy tie,” Reicher’s wife, Camille Tisdel, wrote in June on their CaringBridge website. “e two of them will be attached, literally, for a while. e adventure begins…”
Doug Reicher dressed his IV chemotherapy pole in a tie and named it ”Phred.”
Niece Erica Reicher donated her stem cells to rid her uncle of leukemia.
SUPPLIED PHOTO
e couple shared an upbeat chronology of Reicher’s adventure, which has taken place over several weeks in the hospital and included not just chemotherapy but a stem cell transplant using cells donated by one of Reicher’s nieces. Today he’s recovering at home.
stem cell treatment Doug Reicher PHOTO BY RICHARD WHELSKY
Doctors and nurses at Upstate have long offered autologous stem cell transplants, where a patient’s stem cells are extracted from his or her body before chemotherapy, and then returned. In 2018, they began offering allogeneic stem cell transplants under the direction of Jeffrey Pu, MD, PhD, director of the hematologic malignancies program and the stem cell transplantation therapy program. Pu explains that “you can engage immune reactions” by using stem cells from a healthy donor who has been matched with the patient. “ose immune reactions can continued on page 7
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U P S TAT E H E A LT H
upstate.edu l winter 2019
