Robin Roberts Has Rare Blood Disorder
COOPER: Robin Roberts of "Good Morning America" is facing yet another difficult health challenge. Five years ago, she successfully beat breast cancer, but the treatment she received may have triggered her new medical battle. She shared her diagnosis on this morning's program.</s>ROBIN ROBERTS, CO-ANCHOR, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": Now, sometimes treatment for cancer can lead to other serious medical issues and that's what I'm facing right now. It is something that is called MDS, myelodysplastic syndrome. And if you look it up going what, I was doing the same thing. It is a rare blood disorder that affects the bone marrow. The reason I am sharing this with everybody now is because later today I begin what's known as pre-treatment. It's a pic line and -- in my arm. I didn't want you to be concerned if you saw a bandage tomorrow. It's going to be there to draw blood. That has to be monitored regularly and also to administer drugs later today and for the week and for a period of time. It's all to prepare me for a bone marrow transplant. My big sister is a virtually perfect match for me. She's there with Diane, Ann Sweeney, and she is going to be my donor. She's going to be my donor.</s>COOPER: Two extremely brave women, very few dry eyes after that announcement this morning. Myelodysplastic syndrome is a frightening diagnosis particularly Roberts' case because it may have been caused by chemotherapy, the treatment that helped her beat breast cancer. I never heard of it before and a lot of folks hadn't. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me with some more details about the condition. Sanjay, I'd never heard of MDS. I read it's also called pre-leukemia. What does it mean exactly?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's myelodysplastic syndrome. I think the idea that it's a sort of precursor to leukemia that was somewhat older thinking. I think it's sort of its own disease now. Myelo typically refers to the bone marrow. Dysplastic in the world of medicine refers to the fact that something has gone -- something is abnormal. So in this case, the bone marrow, which typically makes blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, they're churning out abnormal cells. In addition to getting bad cells, you're not getting enough of good cells. That's typically what's happening in</s>MDS. COOPER: She said that she developed it because of the chemotherapy that she got for breast cancer, which was more than five years ago. Would that have contributed to it or how?</s>GUPTA: It can. Although let me point out, first of all, that MDS as a whole is a pretty rare thing. A 10,000 to 20,000 cases a year relatively speaking. But also while getting chemotherapy in the past can be a risk factor for this, it's not a common one. You know, a lot of people watching who may say, look, I'm getting chemotherapy or maybe I did in the past. Am I also going to get MDS now? The likelihood is no, you're not going to get it. But it's a known risk factor for previous chemotherapy.</s>COOPER: She said that she started chemotherapy immediately as part of her treatment and she's going to get a bone marrow transplant later in the year. Walk us through it.</s>GUPTA: Yes, so this is interesting because you typically think of chemotherapy, for example, with her for her breast cancer. In this case, what the chemotherapy is for is to basically kind of knock down the bone marrow. It's churning out, again, these defective cells. Sort of just knock the bone marrow down so it's not really making anymore of these defective cells for a period of time. Then repopulate the bone marrow with healthy cells. So that sort of the process, but Anderson, it can take some time. First of all, you're giving chemotherapy. So in addition to knocking down effective cells, you'll probably also going to knock down some good cells. And then getting the bone marrow transplant, obviously, as you heard from her sister, that will take some time later on as well. So we're talking about months probably, Anderson, as opposed to days or weeks.</s>COOPER: I mean, she's lucky that she has a sister who -- that's a perfect person to do a bone marrow transplant, right?</s>GUPTA: Yes, I think you and I have talked about this. How tough it is to get a bone marrow transplant especially if you're in a minority population, you know, African-American populations, in my community, of Asian-Americans. It's very difficult sometimes. It's just not enough donors. But in her case, she's very lucky because of this. Not only does she have a match, but it sounds like her sister's a very good match.</s>COOPER: There's also, I mean, there's no known cure for MDS. What does that mean? I mean, she says she's confident she's going to beat it.</s>GUPTA: Well, the -- cure if you will -- I think what she's alluding to is the idea she'll have a very successful treatment. What she would hope for, what her doctors would hope for her is that eventually her bone marrow after this whole process when they look at what -- the type of cells it's making, all the cells are good, productive cells. Cells that are doing essentially what they're supposed to do. If that is the case, in effect, she's beaten it, so to speak. Cure's a tough word. Because you always got to keep in the back of your mind, could this come back at some point later on. But successful bone marrow transplant preceded by chemotherapy can be a very effective treatment.</s>COOPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks.</s>GUPTA: You got it, Anderson, thank you.</s>COOPER: We certainly wish Robin Roberts well and her family well. Texting behind wheel, everyone knows it is a bad idea. We all know that by now, but it seems like no one's willing to put the phone down. A closer look at the epidemic of distracted driving next.