When I came into this world, I was not alone. Three minutes later, my twin sister was taken from my mother's stomach. For more than six decades, we have experienced nearly everything together, from Barbies to boys to babies.

I was devastated to learn in 2004 that she had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that is slow progressing, but incurable.

After seven years of front-line therapies, my sister, Marlene Urso of Carnegie, was ready to consider a stem-cell transplant.

“Stem-cell transplants are typically used for hematological disorders and lymphoma. The standard of care is usually to use your own stem cells, or an autologus transplant,” said Alex Reynolds, a stem-cell transplant coordinator at Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside.

In an autologus transplant, stem cells are removed or harvested from the patient's own blood or bone marrow, treated or purged of disease, then frozen. After the patient receives high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation, the cells are thawed and infused through a process much like a blood transfusion.

Betty Watson of Slippery Rock had an autologus transplant 19 years ago after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I had stage seven in one area and stage zero in another. Stem-cell transplantation was still in the experimental stages and not recommended for breast cancer,” said Watson.

But her doctor, the late Jeffery Shogin of Allegheny General Hospital, was conducting research at Duke University on stem-cell transplants and asked Betty and three other women to have transplants at the same time.

“I was out of it for two weeks,” said Watson who spent a month at AGH on a floor that was purified for stem-cell transplant patients. “After exactly 29 days (in the hospital) my numbers started coming up. I felt fragile and was not really confident about anything afterwards, but I was cured for 12 years.”

Watson had no reoccurrence of that cancer but was stricken with a different breast cancer six years ago and endured a mastectomy. She has been cancer free since then.

Since my sister could not use her own stem cells, her hematologist, Dr. Mounzer Agha, of UPMC Shadyside Hospital, recommended a special type of allogenic stem- cell transplant. In allogenic transplants, the stem cells are harvested from a donor. The disadvantage of typical allogenic transplants is a greater risk that the patient's immune system may not accept the new cells.

“I recommended syngeneic transplant (one where the donor is an identical twin) because the marrow from the donor will be clean from the myeloma, which is an added advantage to Marlene,” said Agha, also head of stem-cell transplants at Shadyside.

Perhaps more advantageous is the fact that we are identical twins with identical immune systems. My cells should have no trouble being accepted, settling in the bone marrow, and growing to make healthy blood cells, a process called engraftment.

“Transplant does not cure myeloma, but it puts it in a longer remission,” said Agha. “She will need more treatment and possible maintenance therapy after the transplant.”

I did not hesitate to be her donor.

I learned that donating stem cells is not complicated. I had blood drawn for a number of tests, an electrocardiogram and chest X-ray, plus a short physical and some interview questions.

Then, after proving to be a healthy donor, I received injections of a growth hormone called neupogen for four days to promote stem cell growth. I had a lot of pain in my chest at one point during the injections, but realized that two extra-strength Tylenol would suppress it.

After the injections, I underwent a four-hour procedure similar to a blood transfusion during which my blood was taken, the stem cells separated out and harvested, and my blood returned to me. My stem cells were then frozen and will be transplanted into my sister, probably later this month.

I was thrilled that I had the potential to prolong my sister's life and improve her quality of life. So was she.

A stem-cell transplant can be risky and painful for patients, and a little uncomfortable for donors, but for some cancer survivors, such as Watson, it has provided a new lease on life.

Some information derived from www.cancer.org, the American Cancer Society website.

For more information about blood cancers, explore these web sites or contact these organizations:• The American Cancer Society – www.cancer.org• The International Myeloma Foundation – www.myeloma.org,• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society — www.lls.org