For Lupe Cervantes life is a waiting game. Diagnosed with Lymphoma for the second time in his life, his quest to find a stem cell match in order to beat his cancer has not been easy. With only 9 percent Latinos out of more than 7 million people on the marrow registry, cases like Cervantes make it hard for Latinos to find the donors they so desperately need.
When he was told he had a relapse from his first bout with cancer, the doctor told him the only way to survive was through bone marrow transplant. The best method was to find a donor during remission. Cervantes, 46, has six siblings. All are not matches. He has two kids. Again, no luck.
When he first went through the bone marrow registry, there were no perfect matches. The next best thing is the 9/10 match, where the donor is a close match, but not an exact one. More problems can arise from a 9/10 match. With a transplant like this one, any health problem or illness the donor has then transfers to the recipient. For Cervantes, this is where the waiting begins. He is one of 6,000 patients searching the registry daily.
“There is not too much time to really enjoy life,” Cervantes said from his hospital bed. He was recovering from his recent chemotherapy treatments, noting that his treatments are extremely intense and done through the hospital. He spends the next week recovering, “When you start feeling a little better, then it is time to go back for another one (treatment),” he said. Cervantes’ family and friends are what keep him going throughout this hard time.
While the efforts of the Colorado marrow donor registry are ahead of the national average with almost 12 percent of Latino donors, there is ...