Stem cell and bone marrow transplants – Cancer Research UK

Stem cell or bone marrow transplant is a way of giving very high dose chemotherapy. This treatment aimsto cure some types of cancer, including Hodgkin lymphoma.

Bone marrow is a spongy material that fills the bones.

It contains early blood cells, called stem cells. These develop into the 3 different types of blood cell.

You have a stem cell or bone marrow transplant after very high doses of chemotherapy. The chemotherapy has a good chance of killing the cancer cells but also kills the stem cells in your bone marrow.

Before your high dose chemotherapy, your team collects your stem cells or bone marrow. Or they collect adonor's stem cells or bone marrow. After the treatment you have the cells into a vein through a drip. The cells find their way back to your bone marrow. Then you can make the blood cells you need again.

You might have this intensive treatment if your Hodgkin lymphoma comes back after the first course of treatment. It can get rid of the lymphoma again for many people. Your doctor might also suggest this treatment if your Hodgkin lymphoma has not responded to the standard treatment.

You might have a course of high dose BEAM or LEAM chemotherapy. Then most people with Hodgkin lymphoma have their own stem cells or bone marrowback after the high dose treatment. This is called an autologous transplant.

You're now more likely to have a stem cell transplant (also called peripheral blood stem cell transplant) than a bone marrow transplant.

This is because:

You have injections of growth factors before, and sometimes after, the stem cell transplant. Growth factors are natural proteins that make the bone marrow produce blood cells.

You have daily injections of growth factor for between 5 and 10 days. Sometimes you might have low doses of chemotherapy with the growth factor injections.

After your growth factor injections, you have blood tests every day to see if there are enough stem cells in your bloodstream. When there are enough cells, you have them collected. This is called harvesting. Collecting the stem cells takes 3 or 4 hours. You are awake during this process. You lie down on a couch. Your nurse puts a drip into each of your arms and attaches it to a machine.

Your blood passes out of one drip. It goes through the machine and back into your body through the other drip. The machine filters the stem cells out of your blood. They are collected and frozen until after your high dose treatment.

You mayneed to go back the following day for a second harvest if they don'thaveenough cells from the first collection.

You might feel very tired after having your stem cell collection.

You might have:

This happens if your calcium level gets low during your collection. Your nurses will give you extra calcium through a drip if this happens.

You have your bone marrow taken (bone marrow harvest) under a general anaesthetic. This means you are asleep and can't feel anything during the procedure.

You lie on your side on a couch. Your doctor puts a needle through your skin into the hip bone (pelvis). The doctor gently draws out the bone marrow through the needle into a syringe. To get enough bone marrow the doctor needs to put the needle into several parts of the pelvis. You have about 2 pints (1 litre) of bone marrow taken out and then it's frozen until it's needed.

You might have a stem cell or bone marrow transplant using cells from a donor. This is called an allogeneic transplant. The cells need to be as similar as possible to yours.

So these can be from:

Youmight have bone marrow from a donor if:

Doctors are still learning how best to use allogeneic transplants for Hodgkin lymphoma.

The side effects of having a stem cell or bone marrow transplantare caused by high dose chemotherapy.

The main side effectsinclude:

You can call the Cancer Research UK nurses to talk about any worries you might have about having a transplant. The number is freephone 0808 800 4040, and the lines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

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Stem cell and bone marrow transplants - Cancer Research UK