Quote:
Originally Posted by marmab
So...my question. As a few people have mentioned, in light of my seemingly wacky immune system, is there any chance that my marrow might rebound on
its own? Especially because there is no evidence of blasts or cytogenic abnormalities. My doctor thinks not, or at least he said that in his experience he hasn't seen it. Has anyone out there tried acupuncture to try and re-set or tune the immune system?
|
The stats I've seen for AA suggest there is about a 20% chance of spontaneous remission without treatment. I don't know what it would be for MDS. I think these numbers were gathered before the widespread use of BMT or the advent of ATG/cyclo as a therapy. I suspect it would be somewhat more difficult to quantify these days, as most patients do go on to either IST or transplant. Back then, the other 80% were simply mortalities.
Greg has posted a link to Aplastic Central. Sadly, their forum is pretty dormant now, but there's still some good information in the archives. It must be noted that while Bruce started the site to explore and encourage more holistic alternatives to ATG or BMT, and he remains committed to that course, he has also admitted that it hasn't produced the type of results he was hoping for. He still has AA, and his counts remain low, but he's learned to live with that. At least he's still here, so there's hope!
The idea that any type of health issue can be reversed if you just eat healthy, excercise, avoid environmental toxins, etc. is very appealing to a lot of people. In the beginning many choose this approach over conventional western medicine and being bombarded with chemicals, and it's easy to understand why. I just wish I'd heard more success stories from these people. I have heard one or two, but given the odds I quoted above, who can be sure what really brought about their remission? Most eventually become discouraged and face the need to do something more drastic about it.
Likewise, I am still waiting to hear some success stories from Campath. The few people I've heard from who tried it have said it's much easier to tolerate than ATG/cyclo, but they also didn't acheive a response to it.