A Happy Ending Story

I get a lot of stories about people who do great things or even simple things from media marketers. I liked this one especially on the eve of receiving three calls for twins today, so in honor of twins, I'm passing it along. I will say that I've written for the St. Louis Children's hospital and their programs on a number of occasions, and they are a wonderful group of people.

By Sheena Quinn

Stevie Sipes’ life-changing journey began in 2003 when, at age 20, she noticed a painful bump on her head. Tests revealed bone lesions throughout her body – on her back, leg, hip, knee, clavicle and other bones. Stevie was diagnosed with Langerhan's cell histiocytosis (LCH), a rare disease that arises from a defective immune system that cannot regulate itself. Stevie’s case was extremely aggressive and potentially fatal, attacking her lungs and bones, drastically reducing her lung function.

Several rounds of chemotherapy in increasing intensity did nothing to improve her lung function or reduce the lesions. Stevie’s last option was a bone marrow transplant from an exact match to replace her defective immune system with a healthy one. The transplant would also require more chemotherapy in order to prepare Stevie’s body to accept the donor cells. Thankfully, her younger sister was an exact match and Stevie received the life-saving bone marrow transplant. But doctors feared that Stevie would never be able to conceive a child because of the high doses of chemotherapy she would need to receive.


"My doctors told me that I would probably be sterile and wouldn’t have kids after all of the therapy," says Stevie. "They believed that the high doses of chemotherapy would probably ruin my ovaries."

Infertility is just one potential late effect, or consequence, of chemotherapy or transplant. Dr. Shalini Shenoy, associate director of the bone marrow transplant program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH) and co-founder of SLCH’s Late Effects Clinic, says, "We at the clinic always discuss this possibility with patients, as well as the other late effects that might develop with treatment."

At the clinic, Dr. Shenoy worked with doctors to implement a reduced chemotherapy regimen for Stevie and a reduced intensity transplant using antibodies to decrease the incidence of late effects.

After a successful bone marrow transplant, Stevie’s immune system began to regulate itself. The lesions got better and her lung function stabilized and improved. She was able to gradually stop all her medicines.

Then, nine months later, Stevie received a small miracle – actually two; she was pregnant with twins. Less than 18 months after her bone marrow transplant, she gave birth to healthy twin boys Cori and Dalton.

Dr. Shenoy credits the reduced-intensity chemotherapy administered at the clinic for Stevie’s ability to sustain her pregnancy. This type of regimen at the clinic is designed to preserve tissue and organ development, which can be stunted by intense chemotherapy, as well as prevent some of the late effects known to be associated with the treatment.

The Late Effects Clinic aims to help survivors of cancer and other diseases requiring similar treatments to deal with the challenges resulting from their successful treatments by providing comprehensive, lifelong care.

The long-term effects of childhood cancer treatments have come to the forefront of the medical society. Statistics from the National Institutes of Health indicate that 30 years ago only 30 percent of children diagnosed with cancer survived into adulthood. Today, the survival rate has grown to 80 percent, presenting pediatric oncologists with a new challenge – caring for these cancer survivors into adulthood.

Stevie's success story is not a common one. Many patients have ovarian failure or premature menopause after transplant because the chemotherapy decreases the ability to make estrogen. Hence, Stevie’s story has some encouraging implications for girls facing this kind of treatment.
I hope you are interested in this inspiring story or the long term effects of chemotherapy. I will be in contact shortly. Stevie and her family as well as SLCH’s pediatric oncology experts are available for interviews.