Occasionally, patients also have radiation therapy. Step 3: Getting your stem cells back. This step is your transplant day. It takes about 30 minutes for each dose of stem cells. This is called an infusion. Your health care team puts the stem cells back into your bloodstream through the catheter. You might have more than one infusion. Step 4: Recovery. Your doctor will closely monitor your cells' recovery and growth and you will take antibiotics to reduce infection. Your health care team will also treat any side effects.
Read more details below about recovering from a bone marrow transplant. Step 1: Donor identification. A matched donor must be found before the ALLO transplant process can begin. Your HLA type will be found through blood testing. Then, your health care team will work with you to do HLA testing on potential donors in your family, and if needed, to search a volunteer registry of unrelated donors.
Step 2: Collecting stem cells from your donor. If the cells are coming from the bloodstream, your donor will get daily injections shots of a medication to increase white cells in their blood for a few days before the collection. Then, the stem cells are collected from their bloodstream. If the cells are coming from bone marrow, your donor has a procedure called a bone marrow harvest in a hospital's operating room.
Step 3: Pre-transplant treatment. This step takes 5 to 7 days. You will get chemotherapy, with or without radiation therapy, to prepare your body to receive the donor's cells. Step 4: Getting the donor cells. Getting the donor cells usually takes less than an hour. Step 5: Recovery. Your health care team will also treat any side effects from the transplant.
Read more details below about bone marrow transplant recovery. Recovery often has stages, starting with intensive medical monitoring after your transplant day.
As your long-term recovery moves forward, you will eventually transition to a schedule of regular medical checkups over the coming months and years. During the initial recovery period, it's important to watch for signs of infection.
The intensive chemotherapy treatments that you get before your transplant also damage your immune system. This is so your body can accept the transplant without attacking the stem cells. It takes time for your immune system to work again after the transplant. This means that you are more likely to get an infection right after your transplant. To reduce your risk of infection, you will get antibiotics and other medications. Follow your health care team's recommendations for how to prevent infection immediately after your transplant.
It is common to develop an infection after a bone marrow transplant, even if you are very careful. Your doctor will monitor you closely for signs of an infection. You will have regular blood tests and other tests to see how your body and immune system are responding to the donor cells. You may also get blood transfusions through your catheter. Your health care team will also develop a long-term recovery plan to monitor for late side effects, which can happen many months after your transplant.
Learn more about the possible side effects from a bone marrow transplant. Your doctor will recommend the best transplant option for you. But the use of stem cells from a MUD is linked to more complications. Sometimes umbilical cord stem cells are used.
These stem cells come from blood drained from the umbilical cord and placenta after a baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut. For most patients with AML, especially those at higher risk of having the leukemia return after treatment, using an allogeneic SCT is preferred over an autologous SCT see below.
Leukemia is a disease of the blood and bone marrow, so giving the patient his or her own cells back after treatment may mean giving them back some leukemia cells as well. Donor cells are also helpful because of the graft-versus-leukemia effect. When the donor immune cells are infused into the body, they may recognize any remaining leukemia cells as being foreign to them and attack them. Allogeneic transplants can have serious risks and side effects, so patients typically need to be younger and relatively healthy to be good candidates.
Another challenge is that it can sometimes be difficult to find a matched donor. This means there are no clinical signs of this disease after therapy. If you have a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia, you may go through the following steps:. A bone marrow transplant is particularly effective in treating AML in people who have not had this kind of leukemia before. Survival rates are also higher in people with any kind of leukemia who receive related matched bone marrow donors, rather than with unrelated matched donors.
A related matched donor is a closely related, biological relative. You may have a range of emotional symptoms, such as:.
People who have a bone marrow transplant also have a 2 to 3 times higher chance of getting some other cancers than people who have not had this procedure, according to a nursing textbook. Signs and symptoms of this include:. Factors that may affect your chances of experiencing adverse effects after a bone marrow transplant include:. Palliative care to manage side effects and improve your quality of life is an important part of treatment.
Let your doctor know about any symptoms or side effects you experience after a bone marrow transplant. In general, autologous bone marrow transplants are easier for the body to accept than allogeneic transplants. This significantly lowers the risk of some complications. The drawback of autologous transplants is that despite treating the stem cells in a lab, some leukemia cells may return. After a bone marrow transplant, you may need a series of blood tests to check your blood cell counts to see if they have returned to a normal range.
Once the leukemia is under control, the bone marrow transplant is considered successful. Learn about your risk for relapse Doctors do cytogenetic and molecular testing to see how likely it is that the AML will come back relapse. Questions to ask your doctor Ask questions so you understand your treatment options and can make decisions that are best for you.
Questions you may want to ask your doctor include: What are my chances of a cure or long-term remission if I get a transplant? Does the type of AML I have make a difference on how well transplant might work for me? Does my current health or age affect how well transplant might work for me? What do my cytogenetic and molecular markers mean for my treatment? What are the possible side effects of transplant?
How can they be reduced? How might my quality of life change over time, with or without transplant? Learn more about planning for transplant Most recent medical review completed March
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