National News
Few Sickle Cell
Patients Recieve
Beneficial Drug
Reed Commencement Speaker
Reed College announces that kathleen
Saadat ’74 will be the keynote speaker at the
college’s 101st annual commencement
ceremony on Monday, May 18 — chosen by
the graduating class.
Study finds medication helps
reduce painful episodes
F
ew American adults with
sickle cell anemia are get-
ting
a
recommended
medication that can help them
manage pain, breathing problems
and other debilitating symptoms,
according to a new study.
Using a national database,
researchers found that less than
one-quarter of sickle cell patients
who should have been taking a
drug called hydroxyurea actually
were.
“This is a medication that’s
highly beneficial and yet most
people aren’t getting it,” said Dr.
George Buchanan, a sickle cell
expert, and a professor at the Uni-
versity of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center at Dallas, who
was not involved in the new study.
Findings from the study were
reported in the April 28 issue of
the Journal of the American Med-
ical Association.
Sickle cell anemia is an inherit-
ed disease that mainly affects
people of African, South Ameri-
can or Mediterranean descent. In
the United States, about one in
500 African American children are
born with the condition, according
to the U.S. National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
Experts contend that the central
problem in sickle cell is that the
body produces red blood cells that
are crescent-shaped, rather than
disc-shaped. Those abnormal cells
tend to be sticky and can block
blood flow—causing symptoms
such as fatigue and shortness of
breath.
Many people with sickle cell
also suffer sudden
bouts of pain due to
poor blood flow. And
according to treat-
ment
guidelines
released last year,
adults who have three
or more pain “crises”
within a year should
be prescribed hydrox-
yurea.
Hydroxyurea was
originally developed
as a cancer drug, but
it treats sickle cell by
prompting the body
to make fetal hemo-
g l o b i n — a n
oxygen-carrying pro-
tein in red blood cells.
That, in turn, helps
keep red blood cells
from becoming stiff,
sticky and crescent-shaped,
according to the NHLBI.
“My own view is, the vast
majority of people with sickle cell
anemia should be taking hydrox-
yurea,” said Buchanan, who
helped develop the latest treatment
Later, she worked with keeston Lowry and
other city employees to craft Portland’s civil
rights ordinance, which prohibits
discrimination against gays and lesbians,
and people based on their source of
income.
PHOTO COURTESY REED COLLEGE
Special to the NNPA from
Our Weekly
Saadat is well known in Portland as an
advocate for economic justice, women’s
rights, equal rights for people of color. She
has also served as a mentor for Oregon’s
LGBTQ community for nearly 40 years.
In 1976, Saadat and six others organized one
of Portland’s first gay rights marches.
The Reed commencement ceremony begins
at 11 a.m. on Reed’s Great Lawn in front of
Eliot Hall. The ceremony is free and open to
the public. More information is at
www.reed.edu/commencement.
need it getting the drug? There are
several issues, said Dr. Michael
DeBaun, who directs the sickle
cell treatment center at Vanderbilt
University in Nashville, Tenn.
For one, DeBaun explained,
there are few hematologists who
specialize in treating sickle cell
‘This is a medication that’s highly
beneficial and yet most people
aren’t getting it’
guidelines.
He added that people who work
in the field have long known that
hydroxyurea is underused, but this
study offers hard numbers.
“The findings are not surprising,
but they’re very disappointing,”
Buchanan said.
So why aren’t more people who
patients—especially adults. So
people with the disease often see
only a primary care doctor.
But because sickle cell is rela-
tively rare, DeBaun said, most
primary care doctors have little
experience treating it.
Add to that the fact that they
may know little
about hydrox-
yurea.
“It’s a cancer
drug,” DeBaun
said, “and most
internists do not go through their
training learning how to manage a
chemotherapy agent.”
Another issue, DeBaun said, is
that many sickle cell patients are
low-income Blacks. Some may be
uninsured or “under-insured,” and
possibly have no consistent health
provider. Plus, they often live in
areas, whether rural or urban, that
lack specialists in the disease,
DeBaun explained.
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May 13, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 9