Cancer patients who are subject to chemotherapy treatments usually need stem cell transplantation to regenerate blood. The drugs used for tumor reduction affect all the body cells that have a high division rate, which includes bone marrow, hair follicles and digestive linings. The problem is that chemotherapy triggers the blood’s incapacity to regenerate. When the bone marrow blood generating cells are destroyed, the only chance of blood production is through stem cell transplantation. To make it even clearer than that, stem cells will turn into specialized blood cells with their various functions: white cells, red cells and platelets.
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 the compatibility with a donor is not possible, and the intervention is pressing, then, the patient’s bone marrow tissue can be used but on the one condition that it be collected prior to the beginning of the chemotherapy treatment. The stem cells will be frozen and stored at the stem cell bank until the intervention.
Modern stem cell transplantation options include the use of umbilical cord stem cell or peripheral blood collected either from a donor or from the patient. Nevertheless, such procedures are less common since they usually require modern technologies and special equipment. Hence, the bone marrow transplant remains the well-known kind of stem cell transplantation in the world. It enjoys a high rate of success, even if it often requires several transplants before complete blood regeneration. Normally, there will be a stem cell transplantation for every intensive chemotherapy session.
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. This is why the doctor has the obligation to inform the people involved and discuss possibilities as well as methods that work for the benefit of all, so that the result of the transplantation be a successful one.