Bone-Marrow Patient Discharged Again

Alana Dung, the 2-year-old leukemia patient who underwent a bone-marrow transplant this summer, was discharged again Tuesday from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

She’ll remain in Seattle as an outpatient for about a month, but then could go home to Hawaii for monitoring by her own doctor, hospital officials said. Like all Hutchinson transplant patients, she would return for a one-year checkup.

The child was first released about two weeks ago, on Sept. 9, but had to return the next day for antibiotic treatment when a routine test detected a possible infection.

Bone marrow produces the cells that fight infection, and transplant patients are extremely vulnerable to infection until their cell systems return to normal.

Alana, the daughter of a Honolulu police detective, suffered from a rare form of leukemia. She underwent extensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments to remove the diseased cells from her body and to prepare her for the marrow transplant, a procedure similar to a blood transfusion.

The girl received the marrow in July from an anonymous, unrelated donor in Taiwan - the only person among 30,000 tested who was a perfect match.