Now, there’s reason to believe that special, fast-growing cancer stem cells keep your disease alive by reproducing. They’re cells that advance cancer.Įxperts used to think all cancer cells were the same. They sound like special cells that fight cancer. It’s less taxing on your body, and new cells can still grow and fight your cancer. You’ll start out with a lower dose of chemo and radiation before you get the stem cells. Your doctor may want you to have a reduced-intensity, or “mini,” stem cell transplant. Also, it’s more likely you have another health condition like high blood pressure or diabetes. Still, if you’re older, it can be harder for you to manage side effects. Thanks to strides in the matching process in the past decade or so, your odds of having more problems from the treatment are much lower than they used to be. You’ll also get medicine after your transplant that can work to keep those problems at bay. It could happen right after the transplant or not until a year later. It’s when your body fights to get rid of the new cells, or the cells launch an attack against you. When you get stem cells from a donor or cord blood, there’s a risk of something called graft-versus.-host disease. That doesn’t sound great, but advances in cancer treatment can make them easier to live with. What and how severe they are depend on the dose. If you’re being treated with your own stem cells, you may have high-dose chemotherapy first. Plus, the pairing doesn’t have to be as perfect as it would be from a donor. This lets doctors quickly check to see if there’s a match for you. It can be frozen and stored in a cord blood bank until its stem cells are needed.Ĭord blood is tested before it’s banked. After a baby is born, blood rich in stem cells remains in the discarded cord and placenta. If your doctor can’t find a donor,they may use cells from donated umbilical cord blood. This wipes out your own stem cells and gets your body ready for the new ones soon after your treatment is done. You can also get stem cells from someone you don’t know.īefore an ALLO transplant, you’ll get chemotherapy, radiation, or both. If it doesn’t, your body may reject their cells. It’s important that the donor’s bone marrow closely matches yours.

In an allogeneic (ALLO) transplant, you get healthy stem cells from a donor. Once there, they can help your body make healthy blood cells again. They’ll find their way back to your bone marrow. Since they're outside your body, they aren’t harmed during the chemotherapy or radiation treatments you’ll need to get rid of your cancer cells.Īfter your treatment ends, your thawed stem cells are returned to your bloodstream through an IV. In an autologous (AUTO) transplant, doctors take healthy stem cells from your bone marrow or blood. Your doctor will decide which is best for you. White blood cells that fight off illness.Red blood cells that give your body oxygen.They’re also in your blood, as well as blood from umbilical cords.Īs they mature, blood stem cells change into three types of cells your body needs: They grow inside your marrow, the soft tissue of your bones. They also let your body recover faster from intense chemotherapy and radiation treatments.įor some, it may be the best - or only - approach. These cells help replace cells damaged by the cancer. We’ve tried drugs like Humira, Enbrel and Orencia, but they really didn’t help all that much and even if they helped a little, the relief stopped pretty quickly.” The young woman looked tired and a bit resigned.If you have leukemia or lymphoma, you may need a stem cell transplant. Her physician in Michigan said going to Panama was our best bet because we could receive embryonic stem cells. “We’ve tried just about everything but my mother’s organs are now being affected. It’s all very destructive on the body,” she said. “It’s an autoimmune disease where the immune system turns on itself and first attacks the lining of the joints and then the joints themselves. It’s incredibly painful,” she said as she played with her phone and dangling ear buds. “I’ve never really known her without RA and she has had limited mobility most of my life. “My mother has suffered most of her life from rheumatoid arthritis or RA, she said. She looked tired and much older than someone in her forties. Her mother sat quietly in a wheel chair parked not far from the gate. After a bit of conversation, I learned the young woman, somewhere in her mid-twenties, was on her way to take her mother for stem cell treatments in Panama City.

Stem cell treatment panama