Every year, 12,000 people are diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia. A stem cell transplant -- powerful enough to cure the disease -- is available to patients, but is limited in use due to concerns about its serious, potentially fatal, side effects.
But a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that for the majority of patients, the benefits far outweigh the risks.
Randall Burnham went into the ER. feeling "flu-ish", and came out with a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia.
“It was just a week before I was diagnosed that I started having these fevers and chills,” he says.
Initial treatment of AML consists of chemotherapy -- and nearly 70 percent of patients under age 60 enter into remission after receiving it.
But the optimal next step to prevent a relapse is unclear, which led Dr. John Koreth of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and a team of colleagues to collect and analyze data from two dozen studies on allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
In this procedure, healthy, blood-forming cells taken from a compatible donor replace the abnormal cells in a patient's bone marrow. These transplants have a higher risk of serious side effects -- but result in a lower rate of relapses.
“For intermediate risk, even the experts were stumped. We are coming along and saying actually it's fairly straightforward you should strongly consider an allogeneic transplant rather than the alternative treatments based on the cumulative experience of several thousands of patients,” Koreth says.
Relapse-free two years after his transplant, Randall Burnham is appreciating the little things in life more than ever.
“Hugging your grandchildren is a boost to your well-being, how you're going to get through the changes that have taken place in your life,” Burnham says.
Researchers say the development of more sophisticated means of analyzing genetic risk will help to further pinpoint good candidates for this type of stem cell transplant.
CLICK HERE to read the abstract of the study.
