This pain is generally well managed with oral paracetamol. There can also be some mild ‘bone pain’ experienced due to the growth factor injections. There is some discomfort from the needle (cannula or vascath) inserted into the vein. Peripheral stem cell collection doesn’t cause any ongoing pain. Apheresis collection repeats over several days until the collection volume or enough stem cells are collected. This process takes several hours (roughly 2 – 4 hours). Once the blood has travelled through the cell collection phase. The machine then separates the stem cells into a collection bag. The cannula or vascath helps blood travel out of the body and into the apheresis machine. Apheresis involves inserting a cannula (needle/catheter) into a large vein in the arm or a vascath (special central line). It does this by separating enough stem cells needed for a transplant. They are generally admitted to hospital a few days before the Transplant Day (the day the cells are reinfused) and stay in hospital until their immune system has recovered to a safe level.Īn apheresis machine separates different components of the blood. Most people undergoing an autologous stem cell transplant will be in hospital for 3 – 6 weeks on average. It can take many months and sometimes even years for the immune system to fully recover after an autologous transplant. Therefore, in some cases it might mean relocating to the larger cities that the transplant hospital is located in. Engraftment: this is the process by which the reinfused cells settle into the body and boost the immune system, rescuing it from prolonged neutropenia.Ī stem cell transplant is an intensive form of treatment and there are only select hospitals in Australia that can provide this treatment.Reinfusion of stem cells: once the high dose treatments have been administered, the patient’s own stem cells which were previously collected, are reinfused back into the bloodstream.Conditioning treatment: this is the chemotherapy that is administered in very high doses to eliminate all of the lymphoma.The stem cells are frozen and stored until the day of reinfusion. Stem cell collection: this is the process of harvesting stem cells, generally done through an apheresis machine that helps filter the stem cells out of the circulating blood.Other treatment is done to stimulate the bone marrow to produce enough stem cells for the collection. Preparation: this includes some treatment to reduce the lymphoma (this can include up to 2 doses of chemotherapy).However, the consequences of such severe treatment means that the immune system will not be able to recover on its own, the autologous stem cells provide a rescue for the damaged immune system and help it get back up and functioning. These very high doses will kill the immune system (including the lymphoma). This generally involves very high doses of chemotherapy. The reason the term rescue can be used to describe an autologous stem cell transplant, is because when a lymphoma is not responding to treatment, or continually coming back after treatment stronger measures are needed to try and eradicate the lymphoma once and for all. In an autologous stem cell transplant, the transplanted cells are the patient’s own cells being reinfused back into them. ‘Autologous’ is the formal name for something that comes from self, as opposed to something that comes from someone else. The autologous stem cells are administered as a rescue for the immune system. An autologous stem cell transplant can be described as a rescue treatment.
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