pre transplant drugs

[kellym]

Hi, My daughter is due to go in for her transplant in a few days, she is being given a combination of fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and campath over five days. Im just wondering if anyone else has had these and how they were with them

[Neil Cuadra]

Kelly,

The immunosuppressants fludarabine and cyclophosphamide are certainly part of the common pre-transplant regimen here in the U.S., but the exact protocol can vary by treatment center as well as individual circumstances of the patient.

Campath (alemtuzumab) has been around for years too. It can lessen the chances of graft-versus-host disease. There's a lot of discussion of Campath in these forums, but mostly because it's undergoing trials as a treatment for MDS.

May I ask who the donor is and how close a match they found for your daughter?

[squirrellypoo]

Hi Kelly.

I had two of those in my pre-transplant regime. I had fludarabine, busulfane, and then campath. For me, the first two might as well have been saline drips for all I knew - no nausea, discomfort, or anything. The campath was kinda funny - the first night I had breathing difficulties and a tight chest (which was kinda scary til they put me on a nebuliser and it cleared up in minutes), and then the second night I had a comedy sneezing fit for 30 minutes, but other than a big red rash (easily fixed by piriton), that really wasn't so bad for me either. The BMT nurses said that everyone reacts differently to the campath, but that the rash is pretty common.

Just make sure she's got lots of activities and fun things to do inside and she'll be fine. I remember all the good, fun things about my hospital stay from when I was 5 years old, but I can barely remember any of the needles and pain at all. Kids really are resilient, and she'll be bouncing around the playground before you know it...

melissa