Cancer in blood does not form any tumour. It causes damaged cells to mutate and multiply at a rapid pace and invade the healthy cells. When it happens, many cancer specialists suggest stem cell or bone marrow transplant to replace the malignant cells with the benign ones.
According to an eminent radiation oncologist in Kolkata, stem cell or bone marrow transplant is an advanced blood cancer treatment that gives a new lease of life to the patient with any form of liquid cancer, such as multiple myeloma, lymphoma and leukaemia.
Stem Cell Treatment
Stem cells are collected from someone in the family, an unrelated donor or even from the patient. These cells are harvested and infused into the bloodstream to help rebuild new blood cells and replace the ones destroyed or damaged by cancer.
Chemotherapy and radiation may also damage healthy cells. These cells can be replaced through stem cell or bone marrow transplants. This treatment is also helpful to treat some other forms of cancer and medical conditions such as, some paediatric solid tumours, testicular cancer or anaemia. Transplants also benefit the patients with sickle cells disease and some other forms of blood and immune system disorders.
What Are Stem Cells
Hematopoietic stem cells are blood-generating stem cells. These immature cells originate into bone marrow and move into the bloodstream. They can assume the features and functions of any kind of blood cells according to your body’s needs.
“Self-renewal is a great quality of stem cells”, asserts an experienced onco-surgeon at the best cancer hospital in Kolkata. In other words, stem cells can multiply and replicate themselves over time. Hematopoietic stem cells are collected from an adult (the patient, a relative or an unrelated donor) or from the umbilical cord of newborns. Embryonic cells found in the human embryo during the early stage of pregnancy are, however, not ideal for stem cell transplants.
Though bone marrow transplant and stem cell transplant are often used interchangeably, they are not same and the difference lies in the procedure of stem cell collection.
Stem Cell Collection
The process of stem cell donation from peripheral blood that flows through arteries and veins is same as giving blood. The only big difference is it may take up to five days for stem cell donation. It includes the time for necessary medical tests and injections to develop the required amount of stem cells in the donor’s blood.
After collecting peripheral blood from a vein, the sample is sent to a machine to separate the stem cells. The blood is then retransferred to the donor’s body. This process is called apheresis and may take up to five hours.
The side effects of this procedure are mild and only a few including headaches, bone, joint pain, fatigue etc.
Bone Marrow Harvesting
Bone marrow refers to a spongy material inside bones. It produces blood cells. Stem cells harvest from bone marrow is a more invasive process.
In the operating room, the physician applies anaesthesia to the donor before removing 5 percent or two points of the bone marrow from the donor’s hip bone for stem cell harvest. The marrow is filtered to remove fats, bone fragments and other solids before infusion. After the procedure is complete, the donor is taken to another room and kept under observation. Complications after bone marrow donation include pain, soreness at the injection site, infection etc. However, these side effects are rarely experienced.