Moms leukemia came back 5 months after transplant

[Carlito]

Need some advice. My mother was diagnosed last February. She did the transplant in September and was fine till this last Monday when they found blasts in her blood (31%)

Her donor was unrelated but they said perfect match. My mom is 62. We are both devastated with this news. Does she have a chance to get through another round of induction chemo? Any chance if they do another procedure she will be ok? Just looking for some answers/help. She has fought so hard. Is their hope?

[NLJabbari]

Carlito, sorry to hear about your mom's relapse. Have you tried posting this question on Facebook's
"Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Survivors Club"

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bone-...33642656665802

Hope they'll be able to give you advice or answer your questions. Please come back and let us know what you learn and how your mom is doing.

Best of Luck!!!

[DanL]

Carlito,

I am very sorry to hear about your mother's relapse. There are several different ways to treat a relapse, depending on your mother's overall health and the strategy that the doctors believe is in her best interest. Here are a few that I have read about and discussed with my team recently: 1) Donor Lymphocyte Infusion (DLI), which is where you are given a dose of your donor's lymphocytes to try and boost the transplant. 2) usually accompanied by a DLI, reduction of any anti-rejection drugs such as tacrolimus, sirolimus, MMF, cyclosporine, etc, to try and let the donor's marrow have a little more leeway and maybe knock out the blasts 3) vidaza or decitabine to try and bring the blasts back down and give the donor cells a chance to fight again, 4) second transplant - may or may not be accompanied by induction chemo, 5) experimental treatments for AML in relapse - there are many trials out there. This is obviously not an all inclusive list by any stretch, but may allow you to begin conversations with the doctors. If you are not comfortable with the responses (or maybe even if you are) second opinions may be helpful. There may be something that the doctors are missing and just need another set of eyes on her case.

Wishing you and your mother the best of luck!

[Carlito]

Thank u guys for the responses. Her blasts are now up 71% and she was admitted tonight. However the plan is to use a pill called sorafenib. Problem is this drug takes time to order and they didn't want her to wait 5-7 days so they wanna start at hospital. She will be also taking hydroxyurea and allopurinol.

Anyone here familiar with that stuff? I'm hoping she can get into remission so she can try DLI.

As far as overall health she's in good shape otherwise. However they said the leukeimia is spreading fast so they wanna get moving and not wait for pills to come in. Once they do she can go home.