I am oversee student study at Sydney, my recent visit to my family in China after been away for 2 years made me learned the very sad fact that my dad has been diagnosed of Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) with subtype of RAEB-2 according to the WHO classification system. He was lucky that he got instant HLA matched Bone marrow transplantation from my uncle after the diagnosis, so far, he is about to leave the hospital.
I have read some relevant information about HSCT for MDS patients, which showed that the disease free survival from such therapy was about 50% to 60%, one of the big contributor to the high mortality was viral infection such as CMV and relapse. So far, to my understanding, the critical step to avoid such situation is to reconstruct my dad's immune system quickly, so that the boosted immuno cells can suppress the reactivation of leukemia cells or viral infections. I learned from the literature that extractions from some of the Japanese mushroom, such as D fraction from Maitake and Shitake have significant antitumor and immunomodulatory effects, and there have been many such products available on the medicinal market. However, my concern is that if the administration of such immuno-stimulative drugs will cause severe GVHD in regard to my dad's situation, as it will increase the sensitivity and quantity of both innate and adaptive immuno cells.
I wondering if anyone here have similar experiences or concerns. any suggestions will be sincerely appreciated.
My email address is:
mayuanqing8@gmail.com
Alex