Stem Cells Fight Lupus

We've all heard a lot about stem cells. In what's being called a huge development, researchers have now found stem cells can wipe out lupus in certain patients.

Edjuana Ross can once again enjoy shopping after beating lupus. She battled the disease for more than a decade.

"I had extreme joint pain, and every single day I felt sick and tired," Ross says. "It took a lot for me just to get out of bed."

Lupus attacked her immune system and scarred her face. It damaged her heart and caused three strokes. The treatment was almost as hard as the disease. Cortisone caused her to gain 100 pounds!

Ross's doctor, immunotherapist Richard Burt, M.D., from Northwestern University's Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation in Chicago, recommended an adult stem-cell transplant. The goal? To fix her immune system.

"What we're doing is rebooting the computer. So the computer's gone on the blitz. We've rebooted it, and now it's working," Dr. Burt tells Ivanhoe.

First, patients have blood removed to harvest the stem cells. Next, chemotherapy destroys the existing, "broken" immune system. Patients are then given stem cells to build a new immune system.

"The patients we've treated, many of them have their lives back," Dr. Burt says.

In his study, about half of patients who have the procedure are now lupus-free. Ross is one of them.

"It changed my life and it made my life better," she says. "And it made me appreciate a lot of other things."

Slimmed down and feeling better, Ross is now looking forward to her future -- one free of lupus.

The treatment is now the subject of testing for individuals with other diseases -- like MS and diabetes. However, risks can include possible blood transfusions, infection, nausea and the risk of becoming sterile.