EDMONTON- Doctors in Edmonton are doing groundbreaking- and record-breaking- work when it comes to islet cell transplantation in patients with Type 1 diabetes.
The Edmonton Protocol involves transplanting islet cells from a donor pancreas into a patient with Type 1 diabetes. Once transplanted, the islets begin to produce insulin. The procedure only takes about 20 minutes but has proven to be life-changing for hundreds of people in Edmonton.
“It’s amazing. It’s a new life, it really is,” said Danielle Ciambrelli, who had lived with Type 1 diabetes for 25 years before her transplant.
“It’s a treat. I called it a miracle, a miracle in Edmonton,” added Dave Drager, another transplant recipient.
Since the Edmonton Protocol was developed in 1999, it has been performed approximately 1,200 times around the world. But, physicians in Edmonton continue to be front runners in performing the procedure.
In 2011, 30 islet transplants were performed by physicians at the University of Alberta. Last year, that number more than doubled to 61.
“This is a world record and we’re very proud of it,” explained Dr. James Shapiro, director of the Clinical Islet Transplant Program at the University of Alberta. “Every other program in the world is around five or six transplants.. so we’re incredibly proud of what’s been achieved.”
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In 1999, technicians could isolate, on average, 200,000 islets from one pancreas and would only be able to transplant cells about 20 percent of the time.
“Now.. 60 to 70 percent of the time we can transplant and their average islet yield is around 350,000 to 400,000 islets and sometimes they get up to one million islets,” explained Dr. Shapiro.
When it first began, islet transplantation resulted in about 10 percent of patients becoming insulin injection-free. Now, that number sits around 60 percent.
Dr. Shapiro says his team is doing an amazing job.
“They’re working better, they know how to do this, they’ve done it so many times. They have the most experience of any team in the world in doing this and we’re very, very proud of them.”
Dr. Shapiro says the great work that is being done makes him extremely hopeful that a cure for Type 1 diabetes will be found.
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“There really is robust hope, meaningful hope. It’s not just something happening in a test tube. It’s not just something happening in mice. These treatments that are happening in patients today will make a difference tomorrow.”
Patients who have received islet transplantation say they now live fuller, freer lives.
“This transplant makes (life) completely different. The way you live your life and what you focus on in life, you can refocus your life,” explained Ciambrelli. “(I have) less worries of times and meal planning and less pressure to be in tight, tight control.”
Drager says he has been able to travel around the world. He has snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, gone ziplining through the jungle and even climbed a volcano in Hawaii, something he remembers as the first indication the procedure was successful.
“Ordinarily you would have burned up so much sugar, you would have had to stop, you would have had to eat, you would have had to rest. I got up to the top and I almost cried. I looked over the scenery and I said ‘It works. It works. It actually does work,'” Drager said with a smile. “It’s just a freedom I hadn’t had for over 35 years.”
With files from Su-Ling Goh.
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