stem cell transplantation
Cancer patients who are subject to chemotherapy treatments usually need stem cell transplantation to regenerate blood. The drugs used to destroy the cancer cells affect all the body cells that have a high division rate, which includes bone marrow, hair follicles and digestive linings. The problem is that an anti-cancer treatment triggers the blood’s incapacity to regenerate. If the personal stem cells are destroyed only a stem cell transplantation could save one by the regeneration of the blood. To put it in other words, stem cells will turn into specialized blood cells such as platelets, white and red cells.
Bone marrow transplant represents the most basic form of stem cell transplantation, and the practice of this treatment has brought numerous successes. The cancer patient often needs a compatible donor. If this is not possible, doctors will perform a stem cell collection from the patient’s own bone marrow, before the beginning of chemotherapy. The stem cells will be frozen and stored until the procedure.
The use of the umbilical cord blood and of peripheral blood represent the alternatives to stem cell transplantation from bone marrow. Nevertheless, such procedures have just started being put into practice since they usually require special equipment and modern technologies. Hence, the bone marrow transplant remains the most popular and widely used kind of stem cell transplantation in the world. It has a high rate of success, although it often requires several transplants before complete regeneration of the blood. Normally, for each intensive chemotherapy session, there will be a stem cell transplantation as well.
It is important that the doctor, the patient and his/her family as well as the donor be informed about the risks, the success rate, the advantages and the inconveniences of a stem cell transplantation. Risks, health threats, discomforts, pain, all have to be known or explained in advance. The methods used are no mystery, and the patient and donor should be familiar with everything that a stem cell transplantation involves.