The Ginger Launey DeSalvo

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• The Ginger Launey DeSalvo
• Foundation for Lupus Research

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The Foundation

• Gingers Tomorrow Foundation was formed as a
  Kansas non-profit corporation on August 5, 2004
  by the friends and family of Ginger DeSalvo to
  support research for rheumatoid arthritis and
  lupus and to educate the public regarding these
  autoimmune diseases.

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Founders of Gingers Tomorrow

• Amy Ellis
• Angela Greenberg
• Holly George
• Wendy Hills

• Jeannie Kincaid
• Meaghan Pavlovich
• Amy Hawley Rose
• Shelly Ross

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Ginger DeSalvo

• Ginger DeSalvo was diagnosed with rheumatoid
  arthritis age 28. Ginger then developed severe,
  chronic, drug-induced lupus, another form of
  arthritis. Lupus causes the immune system to
  become overactive, creating antibodies that
  attack healthy tissues in the body, including the
  skin, kidneys, lungs, heart and brain. Ginger
  had systemic lupus, which attacked all of her
  internal organs. In her fight against lupus,
  Ginger underwent three stem cell transplants in
  hopes of regenerating her immune system to put
  the lupus into remission. Each of these
  transplants failed. Ginger developed a serious
  infection in the lining of her brain that was
  difficult to fight because her immune system was
  basically non-existent. Gingers third stem cell
  transplant was working. However, when she
  underwent an operation to put a shunt in her
  brain to relieve some of the pressure from the
  infection an artery was cut and Ginger died of a
  brain hemorrhage.

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Treatments for Lupus

• Lupus afflicts as many as one million Americans,
  90 of whom are women.
• Treatments for lupus include anti-inflammatory
  drugs and steroids and various chemotherapy drugs
  that suppress the immune system.
• Stem cell transplants are still in the
  experimental stage as a treatment for lupus.
• This treatment works on the principal that once
  the immune system slate is wiped clean, the body
  can re-learn how to defend itself properly again.
  

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Treatments for Lupus

• With people with autoimmune disorders, such as
  lupus, the immune system attacks its own tissues
  and organs and must be re-taught to differentiate
  between the bodys own cells and foreign
  attackers.
• In order to be a candidate for a stem cell
  transplant, a source of potentially healthy cells
  must be found and often comes from a suitable
  donor.
• Even to be considered for stem cell transplants,
  the patient must have failed to benefit from all
  other conventional therapies.
• Stem cells can be extracted from the bone marrow
  of living patients and from umbilical cords.