Elegant surroundings, vibrant music and a lively auction made the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, scene of the MGH Cancer Center's third annual Bald is Beautiful Ball, an exciting place to be March 23. The ball was organized by a committee headed by Cindy Campbell Bolduc of the MGH Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program, who also hosted the event. The ball is supported by private contributors and The Friends of the MGH Cancer Center. WHDH-TV Channel 7 News anchor Kim Carrigan moderated the live auction, with all proceeds benefiting the MGH BMT Patient Fund.

Yet the true highlight of the evening came in the form of speeches by several patients who best understood the event's significance: BMT recipients who are cancer-free today.

Two patients beat the odds

Michael Finn was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in 1993. Finn found his life turned upside down as he endured rounds of chemotherapy and the replacement of his femur (thigh bone) with a prosthetic bone. Still, he drew comfort from the support of his parents, John and Lynn Yeslow-Finn, and his wife, Julie, (with Finn, on right) who married him just months after his diagnosis. "My family has always been close, but this brought us even closer," he says.

Finn credits Thomas R. Spitzer, MD, director of the BMT Program, and Steven L. McAfee, MD, also of the BMT Program, for encouraging him to undergo a transplant Jan. 10, 1994 — a day Finn still celebrates as his "second birthday."

After receiving the transplant, Finn recuperated at home. Like most patients who receive chemotherapy, he lost his hair. In an attempt to inject some humor into the recovery process, Finn's mother taped a large sheet of paper on a door — where they started a list of famous bald people, such as boxer George Foreman and REM lead singer Michael Stipe.

It was from this idea that the Bald is Beautiful Ball emerged. Lynn Yeslow-Finn, an artist, worked with Bolduc to design the Bald is Beautiful poster, which features an image of Michael — bald beneath his head kerchief — dancing with his wife.

Today, Finn practices law with his father, and — after being warned that his chemotherapy treatments might render him sterile — he and Julie now are expecting a sibling for their 14-month-old daughter, Audrey. "I'm very lucky to have the chance to live," Finn says.

John Bianco, another BMT patient, never allowed himself to doubt that he would live. Diagnosed with lymphoma in October 1992, Bianco endured months of chemotherapy, as well as a stem cell transplant, in which healthy blood stem cells are infused intravenously to replace cells destroyed by chemotherapy.

Despite his aggressive treatment, by January 1996, Bianco's bone marrow was 97 percent consumed by cancer. Jerry Younger, MD, of MGH Hematology/Oncology, gently explained to Bianco that nothing more could be done for him.

While he knew that Younger's medical opinion was sound, Bianco says that he and his wife, Grace Curley, "decided it was not a very convenient time for me to die." Grace had given birth to the couple's daughter, Maeve, just three months earlier, and Bianco (on left with wife Grace Curley, and daughter, Maeve) had maintained his hectic schedule as an attorney.

Working with Younger and his other physicians, Bianco embarked upon a rigorous program of holistic medicine — including a strict diet of raw fruits and vegetables and Chinese herbs and teas, as well as a regimen of martial arts, meditation and prayer. Within months, Bianco's health improved enough for him to forego his transfusions and to hold his daughter — something he had lacked the strength to do at the time of her birth. Two years later, Spitzer and McAfee were able to offer Bianco an experimental chimeric bone marrow transplant.

Bianco became only the 12th MGH patient to receive this type of transplant, in which the immune systems of donor and recipient are blended ­ allowing the donor marrow, rather than chemotherapy or radiation, to destroy the cancer. The transplant also suppresses an attack of the donor's immune cells on the recipient's organs, a dangerous condition known as graft-versus-host disease. Bianco's sister, Elaine, provided the donor marrow.

Bianco encourages other cancer patients to "become active participants in fighting your cancer. Wake up every day and say, "Today, I am not going to die.'"

For more information about the BMT Program, call (617) 724-1124.