Leukemia Marrow Transplant – Facts You Need to Know

Leukemia results due to increased WBC-white blood cells crowding up the platelets and red blood cells-RBCs. It’s a blood cancer that results in WBCs which do not work right. Leukemia is identified by fatigue, bruising, chills, severe infections, headaches, joint pain, seizures, loss of weight, breath shortage, night sweats, and inflamed lymph nodes. Leukemia is treated in different ways. One of the methods is bone marrow transplant or stem cell transplant for treating leukemia. This is called a Leukemia marrow transplant.

What is stem cell transplantation?

Stem cell transplantation involves high radiation or chemotherapy doses to treat destroy leukemia cells within the normal bone marrow. Post this process, the stem cells are transplanted through an intravenous-IV infusion. These infused stem cells get to the bone marrow and start generating new blood cells. These stem cells can be obtained from a potential compatible donor-allogenic or patient-autologous. These cells are obtained from the umbilical cord blood or bone marrow.

How does Leukamia occur?

The 3 blood cell types-RBCs which carry oxygen, WBCs that combat infection, and platelets that assist in a blood clot. Your bone marrow makes many new blood cells with the majority of them being RBCs. In leukemia, WBCs are generated in more numbers than required. The cells cannot combat infection as WBCs. They begin to impact the way your organs operate. With time, there are no sufficient RBCs for sufficient oxygen supply, WBCs to combat infection, and sufficient platelets for the blood to clot.

What does stem cell transplant do?

A stem cell transplant is a process where the harmful leukemia cells are present in your bone marrow. New stem cells are generated from a donor or body which grow into healthy and new blood cells.

Can a bone marrow transplant cure leukemia?

Bone-marrow transplantation is efficient in eliminating leukemia. This is because of the radiation and high drug doses that are administered before transplantation. Leukemia can be treated with a functioning and healthy bone marrow replacement. This way you regenerate an immune system that combats residual or existing leukemia not wiped out with radiation or chemotherapy with a transplant.

The Procedure

Stem cells generated from the patient-Auto transplant

Stem cells collection- A medication is injected to enhance your stem cells. The stem cells are collected from your chest or arm vein. They are stored as required.

Treatment before transplant- It takes 5-10 days. A high chemotherapy dose with some getting radiation therapy is a pre-treatment plan.

Acquiring stem cells- It’s around 30 mins process for every dose of infusion of stem cells. The stem cells are infused using a catheter into your bloodstream. You may need over one infusion.

Recovery-This phase is monitoring your recovery of cells and their growth. You may need antibiotics to minimize infection. Any side effects are treated and dealt with.

Stem cells from a donor-Allo transplant

Donor identification-A potential donor is identified for your HLA identical type through a blood test. They could be friends, family, or from a stem cell register.

The rest of the procedure is the same with the only difference, the stem cells are collected from the donor and self.

Conclusion

Leukemia is a bone cancer that generates more WBCs than usual crowding the RBCs.  A leukemia marrow transplant infuses healthy stem cells obtained from bone marrow to make the system healthy.

Gift of Life Marrow Registry Also Offers Following Services :

Stem Cell Donation

Bone Marrow Match Registry

Bone Marrow Registry Search

Bone Marrow Drive

Contact US:

Gift of Life Marrow Registry

Address:  800 Yamato Rd suite 101 Boca Raton, FL
Phone: (800) 962-7769

Become A Stem Cell Donor – How to

Do you want to know how you can become a stem cell donor? If so, then do not worry, we will let you know.

A potential stem cell donor is the one whose age is between eighteen to fifty-five and is in good health. Anyone whose age is below eighteen can pre-register but he/she must be constantly living in the united kingdom.

But there are some criteria under which you can register for becoming a stem cell donor.  First, let us find out who cannot become a stem cell donor.

Who cannot become a stem cell donor?

1.A person whose weight is below 50kg/13lbs

The amount of blood cells that can be donated depends upon the weight of the respective donor. The people with more weight can donate more stem cells and people with less weight cannot donate much. It is important to maintain a minimum weight because if the number of transplanted cells is low, then the possibility of transplantation usually lessens. That is why low weight people are not allowed to donate stem cells.

  1. Obesity (BMI>40)

To register as a blood donor, a person must not be obese. He/she must have a BMI that is greater than 40. Whereas stem cell donation is not harmful to healthy people, but there are risks when the donor has pre-existing health disorders. Obesity is one of those risks.

  1. Mental Illness

The person donating the stem cell must be mentally healthy. Because if a mentally unhealthy person will donate, then this might add up to the burden.

Who can become a stem cell donor?

Well Controlled, stable, and High Blood Pressure

If a person has a well-controlled, stable, and high blood pressure, then he/she is eligible to donate the stem cells. The reason behind this is, stable blood pressure doesn’t affect the donation process. So, you can donate if you have any of such conditions.

Food Allergy or Hay Fever

If you have any of these allergies ( hay fever, food allergy, or drug allergy) then you can donate stem cells. But if you have Quinkcke’s Oedema or allergic shocks, then it is not recommended to donate stem cells.

Moreover, a person’s present or past allergic reactions can affect the stem cell donation process.

Mild Depression

Severe and mild depressive persons are eligible to donate the blood cells. But, if a person has a serious mental illness or he is depressed, then he/she is not at all eligible to donate the blood cells.

So, if the person is suffering from serious depressive conditions or mental illness, then it is not recommended for them to donate the stem cells. But all those people who are taking the treatments can donate.

Conclusion

So here’s the end. In this article, we have discussed the conditions to become a stem cell donor.  All the people whose age is between eighteen to fifty-five can donate the blood stem cells. But there are certain conditions that they should test before donating.

We hope you are now clear about the eligibility for donating blood cells.

Gift of Life Marrow Registry Also Offers Following Services :

Match For Bone Marrow Donation
Bone Marrow Registry Search
Leukemia Bone Marrow Transplant

Contact US:

Gift of Life Marrow Registry
Address:  800 Yamato Rd suite 101  Boca Raton, FL
Phone: (800) 962-7769

Difference between Bone Marrow Transplant and Stem Cell Therapy

We often believe that there is a big difference between bone marrow transplant and stem cell therapy. However, if you look at it from close quarters and identify the differences, you can be sure that there are quite a few things similar between the two. In fact the only real distinction is the way in which the stem cells are collected. We need to bear in mind that stem cells are versatile and they have the ability to develop and divide and form into different types of cells. On the one hand hematopoietic stem cells have the capacity to produce red blood cells. These cells are oxygen-rich and deliver this life saving nutrients to various parts of the body. On the other hand, stem cells also have the capacity to produce white blood cells and as we all know, WBC play a big role in keeping our body healthy and ward off infections. Stem cells also produce platelets and these are needed for helping blood to clot and help in wound-healing process.

Where Are They Found

 It would be pertinent to mention that hematopoietic stem cells are available in the bone marrow. This is a spongy material inside the bones. Hematopoietic stem cells move from the marrow and into the bloodstream.  When such movement happens and when they are found in the bloodstream they are referred to as peripheral blood stem cells.

Radiation Therapy and Chemotherapy

 We need to understand that both radiation therapy and chemotherapy are extremely critical for treatment of various types of cancers. However, these high dose treatments can severely damaged and weaken the healthy stem cells. In such situations stem cells perhaps can help better in getting the patient back on his or her feet when compared to bone marrow transplant.

What Is The Basic Difference

 As mentioned above, both  and bone marrow transplant are the same in terms of the final objectives and results. Stem cell transplantation or stem cell therapy is the name given to a procedure where the cells are taken from the umbilical cord of the new born baby or also from adults. On the other hand when we talk about bone marrow transplant, healthy stem cells of the donor are transplanted into the bone marrow of patients who are suffering from cancer and other forms of illness. This process is done by injecting the stem cells into the bone marrow of the individuals through the spinal cord. It is a relatively simply process but it might take a few days to complete it.

The Risks And Benefits

There are risks as well as benefits associated with stem cell as well as bone marrow transplant. The biggest risk is rejection. Both these cell transplants are subject to the fear of rejection and when this happens it has to be managed effectively.  In fact umbilical stem cells are prone to more rejection when compared to bone marrow transplants. Further, both these forms of transplants and therapies could also lead to other side effects like infections and even development of new types and forms of cancer. Therefore the risks versus benefits of both the options must be weighed carefully before taking a decision.

Contact US:

Gift of Life Marrow Registry
Address: 800 Yamato Rd suite 101 Boca Raton, FL
Phone: (800) 962-7769