Stem cells

Chemotherapy as a cancer treatment destroys the blood generating cells in the bone marrow, which is why transplants are often necessary in order to increase the life expectation of patients treated for tumors. Stem cell transplantation thus represents the major treatment solution for thousands of people who need such a form of regenerative therapy. Before any transplant, one needs to find a suitable donor, or in the absence of compatibility, the patient’s bone marrow cells will be collected and stored prior to the beginning of chemotherapy. After collection, they will be frozen and stored until the intervention.

The stem cell transplants are injected into the patient’s bloodstream and they thus reach the bone marrow where they start producing blood cells. Normally, more than one transplant sessions are necessary, as the treatment cycles ought to follow the chemotherapy periodicity. How can stem cells contribute to blood formation? Well, stem cells can generate all the blood components, from the red cells to the white cells and platelets. The red cells carry the oxygen through the body, the white cells protect the system against bacteria acting as body defenses and the platelets control bleeding rate and blood clotting.

Although stem cell transplants seem like a separate therapy, it is worth mentioning the fact that the blood and the bone marrow normally contain stem cells, but these get destroyed in cancer patients because of chemotherapy. The stem cell transplants thus become the way to restoring the blood cells production that would otherwise stop in the absence of the undifferentiated cells. Stem cell transplants are not necessary to all cancer patients. In fact, there are several elements that decide whether such an intervention is necessary or not, and the clearest examples are the patient’s responsiveness to the treatment, the health condition, the stage of the disease and so on.

In the past, only younger patients were chosen for stem cell transplants, but at present, age is no longer such a relevant criterion. What does indeed matter is the health of the internal organs such as kidneys, heart and lungs as well as the performance status in the cancer therapy. There are several kinds of stem cell transplants but people have only heard of just a few. And cord blood transplants, peripheral stem cell blood transplants or bone marrow transplants make the most relevant examples. Otherwise, the number of classifications and the criteria serving for such purposes is very large, although not necessary to the average person.