Photopheresis for Daryna

Daryna Ogilko will soon turn 4. Three of them, she is fighting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Hormones changed the face of the child beyond recognition, but they cannot be canceled, because wounds immediately appear on the skin. These are manifestations of the chronic graft versus host reaction. The only treatment that can help is a course of photopheresis, which is not available in Ukraine. In early childhood, a girl found a tumor on her head. Soon, analysis showed that it was an aggressive B-cell lymphoma. 

The girl was immediately hospitalized. She took 4 chemotherapy blocks. Six months later, a relapse occurred. Malignant cells hit the bone marrow. In 2017, Ukrainian doctors made bone marrow transplantation. Donor stem cells have taken roots. But Daryna experienced a severe reaction of the transplant against the host (GVHD). 

To restrain a dangerous reaction, the child needs to take hormones and cyclosporine. It has been 600 days after BMT. But hormones cannot be canceled – complications appear, causing pain and danger for the child. In such cases, a photopheresis procedure is necessary. Blood taken from a child is irradiated with ultraviolet rays, and then transfused to the patient. Irradiated white blood cells cease to destroy healthy cells in the body, and the child recovers.

But in Ukraine this procedure is not available – there is neither a photopheresis apparatus nor specialists. Need to go abroad. You can carry out such a procedure in Turkey. The cost of 30 irradiations is 33,000 USD. At UBB, we plan to collect 700,000 UAH.

Name: Daryna Ogilko, 11.12.2015

City: Cherkasy

Diagnosis: aggressive B-cell lymphoma, reaction of the transplant against the host (GVHD)