Walsh seeking options UMaine coach battling cancer

University of Maine hockey coach Shawn Walsh is at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Md. for a variety of tests and to confer with doctors at the National Cancer Institute to determine his next treatment for his kidney cancer. He will return Tuesday.

Walsh, who had his left kidney removed on July 7, still has cancerous tumors under his breastplate.

He underwent two 20-day immunotherapy treatments at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center in California but the treatments, designed to energize the immune system to destroy the cancerous tumors, didn’t work.

One likely treatment is stem cell transplantation which involves taking healthy white blood cells from a brother or sister and transplanting them in the patient to attack the cancerous cells.

The brother or sister whose immune system most closely resembles the patient’s would become the donor.

One of his brothers is reported to be a very close match.

However, before a decision is made on stem cell transplantation, other treatment options will be weighed.

A September article in the New England Journal of Medicine detailed how 10 of 19 cancer patients had tumor regression with stem cell transplantation including three who had total regression. Seven showed partial regression.

Walsh and his defending Hockey East tournament champion Bears eliminated Northeastern two games to none in their best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series last weekend and will play in the semifinals at the FleetCenter on Friday night at either 5 or 8 p.m.

They are fighting for their third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth and Walsh’s 11th in his 17 seasons at Maine.

“My family, my players and I are very grateful that, as our team has been in the stretch run, the media has stayed away from my health issue,” said Walsh in a statement released on Sunday. “And, I would appreciate their continued respect of my desire to strictly talk hockey. Right now, I want to be able to concentrate on our team. Once we identify the actual treatment and procedures I will undertake, I will make that information available and address the media.”