When considering a transplant, age is a factor, along with overall health, the stage of the disease, the alternative treatment choices (e.g., drugs, transfusions), and the availability of a matched donor. Being age 66 does not rule out a transplant.
Patients in their 50s, 60s, and even 70s now make up a significant percentage of unrelated-donor transplant recipients, up significantly since the 1990s. I assume your mother doesn't have a matched donor, but if so that would make a transplant even less of a risk.
One of the reasons that older patients are able to have transplants is the use of non-myeloablative transplants or "mini transplants", which use less chemotherapy and little or no radiation. Transplants are still tough medicine, but recovery from a mini transplant tends to be much faster than from a full (myeloablative) transplant.
|