A boy in California may have saved his father from a deadly returning cancer by becoming one of if not the world’s youngest stem cell donor.
9-year-old Stephen Mondek from Torrance loves playing catch with his dad, Nick, who himself loves nothing more than being a father.
In 2022 Mr. Mondek was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, and had to be treated rapidly with an injection of donor stem cells from his older brother who was a perfect genetic match.
He went into remission but the cancer came back “ferociously fast,” and Mondek’s only option was that he had to find another stem cell donor. This form of leukemia affects the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow, but an injection of stem cells can form the basis of a new immune arsenal that can locate and attack the leukemia tumors.
A search through the National Bone Marrow Registry failed to turn up a match, but remembering the case of a friend of his, Mondek went into Cedars-Sinai Cancer center in April with a question to his doctors. He was remembering the case of a friend of his who received a lifesaving stem cell donation from his 18-year-old son to cure lymphoma.
“As my doctor came in the room, I said, ‘Could a 9-year-old who’s 70 pounds give us enough stem cells?’” Mondek said to NBC Nightly News.
Ronald Paquette, the clinical director of the Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, confirmed that Stephen Mondek who turned 10 back in August, was a possible donor. A child receives half of their DNA from each parent, so Stephen would naturally be a half-match.
Reporting on the story itself, Cedars-Sinai wrote that Paquette said a half-match might make the transplant more effective. A half-matched immune system might more easily recognize and kill the cancer cells in Mondek’s bone marrow, and transplants from younger donors tend to be most successful.
“The conversation with Stephen was pretty simple,” Mondek said. “I said, ‘Hey, Buddy, Dad’s sick and they need someone to give me stem cells, and they want to know if you want to get tested to see if you can do it.’”
Stephen’s response: “When do we go?”
“I wanted to make my dad’s cancer go away, and if I was sick, I would think he would do the same thing for me,” Stephen said.
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After confirming that Stephen was a suitable match, he had the procedure explained to him so that he could give his own informed consent before visiting Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s Hospital for the donation that required general anesthesia. The stem cells were collected via a process of blood cycling over 6 hours.
A week later, Mondek underwent pre-donation chemotherapy to suppress his own immune system before eventually receiving the stem cells. After 6 weeks in the hospital, he was back home, but not before arriving in time to watch the final inning of Stephen’s little league game.
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“Stephen was very brave, and our team made sure everything went perfectly so that this young boy could help his father,” said Hoyoung Chung, DO, a critical care pediatrician at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s.
“He donated six million stem cells to save my life, so it’s not just an honor to call him my son, I’m proud to call him my hero,” Mondek said.
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