Stem Cell Transplant

The Science Behind Stem Cell Transplant


Let us start with what patients should look for as indications for the need of a stem cell transplant. Most of the recipients of a stem cell transplant are leukemia patients who do not sit well (or whose constitutions do not allow them for long hours of chemotherapy) with chemotherapy.
There are also the children who need stem cell transplant because of their defects since birth. Other diseases that can be treated or cured with a stem cell transplant would be the following: Myelodysplastic syndrome, Ewing’s Sarcoma, Hogkin’s disease. A new type of stem cell transplant has been developed which is termed as a “myeloablative” or more commonly termed as a “mini-transplant”— these procedures need only few doses or exposures to chemotherapy or to radiation. (This is helpful for weak patients and of course, for children with special cases)

There are two types of obtaining a stem cell for a stem cell transplant (of course as to where you get it from is dependent on the hosts’ sickness). The first type would be Autologous Stem Cell transplant which requires extraction from the patient himself. With this, the patient’s own stored stem cells are taken for a stem cell transplant. With an Autologous stem cell transplant, the chances for a graft-versus-host disease are low to nothing. Because the compatibility ratio of the stem cell being transfused is high. And thus the complications can be nullified or completely avoided. Although if the patient is secured that he/she has leukemia, there is the possibility of a complication. And that complication is a second cancer. The first cancer might possibly be cured but another one will develop because the blood cells will end up being overpowered or influenced by the source cell and thus another cancer is developed.

The second type would be an Allogenic Stem cell transplant. This sort of stem cell transplant needs a donor for the host. A lot of preparations are done to both in order to secure the compatibility of the stem cells of both. Although these tests are done, after some stem cell transplants, the other cells end up reacting in a negative manner and thus the “graft-versus-host-disease” is developed. A compatible donor is found through blood tests and the likes and there are gene categories to take into consideration.

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