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Hi!
What you refer to is called autologous transplant. Judi was talking about a study that was done at NIH regarding AA patients, not MDS. That study yielded poor results.
Mobilization, collection, and immunomagnetic selection of peripheral blood CD34 cells in recovered aplastic anemia patients
Authors: Sloand, Elaine M.; Read, Elizabeth J.; Scheinberg, Phillip; Tang, Yong; More, Kenneth; Leitman, Susan F.; Maciejewski, Jaroslaw; Young, Neal S.
Source: Transfusion, Volume 47, Number 7, July 2007 , pp. 1250-1253(4)
Abstract:
BACKGROUND:
Most patients with severe aplastic anemia (sAA) respond to immunosuppression, but a significant number relapse or develop clonal abnormalities such as paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, myelodysplasia, or leukemia. In principle, patients without matched sibling donors and older patients might benefit from transplantation of autologous hematopoietic peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) obtained during remission. Even patients who have clinically recovered from aplastic anemia have diminished hematopoietic progenitor cells, so the practicability of PBPC mobilization in these individuals is unknown.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:
The feasibility of PBPC mobilization in nine patients with a history of sAA was evaluated. Granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (10 µg/kg) was administered subcutaneously for 5 days and followed by a 12-L leukapheresis procedure.
RESULTS:
Only two of the nine patients had sufficient mobilization of CD34 cells to merit collection; in these cases sufficient CD34 cells were obtained for autologous transplantation should the need arise.
CONCLUSION:
PBPC collection is feasible only in a fraction of recovered AA patients.
I'm not very good at this subject, but in my mind, I guess the main problem (apart from the scarcity, and therefore difficulty in collecting stem cells) would be that in MDS there is a KNOWN stem cell defect (as opposed to AA, where no apparent defect is found at diagnosis).
Sandra
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