CURRENT TREATMENT OPTIONS | | Transplantation | | The basic process of transplantation involves replacing cancerous cells with healthy blood stem cells (cells at the earliest stage of development). The stem cells can be collected from either bone marrow or blood (peripheral blood stem cell transplantation). There are two main types of transplantation: | | 1. Allogeneic transplantation | High doses of chemotherapy are used to kill lymphoma cells in the body. However, the chemotherapy also destroys most of the bone marrow in the body and therefore needs replacing. In allogeneic transplantation, the destroyed bone marrow is replaced with blood stem cells obtained from a suitable donor. The blood stem cells then grow into new bone marrow tissue. In some cases, patients receive a lower dose of chemotherapy, therefore not all of the diseased bone marrow is destroyed. This type of allogenic transplant is known as being non-myeloablative or mini transplant. | | 2. Autologous transplantation | | In autologous transplantation, the destroyed bone marrow is replaced with stem cells taken from the patient's own bloodstream, collected prior to receiving the high dose chemotherapy. |
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