Transplant with fibrosos

[MaryMel]

Hi Everyone, This is my first time posting for my husband. He is 61 and was diagnosed with MDS with fibrosis. Blasts are at 10 percent. They want to do a stem cell transplant with his older sister being a match. Right before his transplant he got a fever and had to be hospitalized. He had some pain in the groin area that turned into an abscess and had to have surgery to have it drained. Now, 3 weeks later, he still has an open wound that has to be packed daily. He is starting to feel better and they don't want to wait for it to completely heal as this may take time. We are somewhat nervous going into transplant with this. Any opinions? Thank-you

[julieme]

Here is a link to a fairly easy read re the prognostic value of having fibrosis

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/825183

Maybe ask the Dr to lay out a detailed plan to manage the infection with ongoing treatment. Hugs
J

[DanL]

I think that this is a difficult question to answer. I understand your concern about going through with transplant with a wound that is not healed completely, but there is also reasonable concern that your husband needs a transplant before his disease progresses to AML. The suggestion that you get a detailed treatment plan for the abscess sounds like a good precaution. One benefit of going to transplant is that you are in the hospital where you can be put onto antibiotics with a moment's notice. I had a couple of different infections when I had my transplant, and a few afterwards as well. Being a transplant has the advantage of being treated with great urgency.

As for the fibrosis, I had grade 2 fibrosis at the time of transplant and double digit blasts as well. I think that getting the transplant before the fibrosis advances and blasts become too high is important from a number of levels as pointed out in the article that julieme attached.