bmt on hold as mom's mds now acute leukemia

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• March 21, 2007 at 1:36 am #17457
  worried daughter

  Participant

  hi. we just got really bad news today. we were so ready to begin this transplant process. with my uncle being an exact match and coming in on monday to begin the process. but today, we learned that her mds is now acute leukemia and therefore the transplant has to be on hold.
  they will give her chemo to try and put her into remission, but only give her a 50% chance. if she does go into remission, then she can have the transplant.
  i am so scarred. she is my best friend and the best mother.
  forgot to mention that her mds was treatment related from non hodgkins lymphoma treatment.
  does anyone have a similar story or going through something similar?
  thanks,
  jen

  March 21, 2007 at 7:42 pm #17458
  pierre

  Member

  Hi Jen,

  To answer your question–yes. Very similar in fact. My mother and uncle were an exact match, and her AML had evolved from MDS, which was also treatment-related (breast cancer 13 years prior).

  She’s now 9 months post mini-transplant and doing just fine.

  Best of luck,

  Pierre

  April 2, 2007 at 3:41 am #17459
  KWJ

  Member

  My dad was similiar to your mom. Was at the Hutch in Nov 06 for and SCT, his bro was a perfect match to then we found out he went to AML. He only made it 3 more months. I am so sorry you are going through this too. It is so hard. He was not able to do chemo because he would not make it thru but they did try zarnestra, it was working but he got an infection and did not make it.

  I will pray for you. Take it one day at a time. That is all you can do.

  April 2, 2007 at 4:43 am #17460
  jga_socal

  Member

  KWJ, sorry for your loss.

  April 2, 2007 at 5:03 am #17461
  choijk

  Member

  Hi Pierre, how old was your mom when she had the mini-transplant?

  April 3, 2007 at 8:49 pm #17462
  jaxem

  Member

  jen
  basically, mds is having less than 20% blasts in marrow while aml is greater. my wife developed mds from chemo given after breast cancer surgery. her blast level was @18%, pretty close to the 20% barrier. she has no bm donors available but we’re trying for a double cord sct, however, she needs to get below 5% blasts if the transplant is going to work. she is currently at around 5% & doing rounds of dacogen. what did they tell you her chances were before she developed aml? may I ask how old she is?

  kwj; really sorry about your dad.

  April 3, 2007 at 11:48 pm #17463
  choijk

  Member

  I am so sorry. I am still learning. Who would be eligible for a doubt cord sct? Is this something that I should bring up to my doctor?

  April 6, 2007 at 2:54 am #17464
  jaxem

  Member

  June
  bring everything up to your dr. very few institutions do them. there may be a size of patient restriction as you can only get so many stem cells out of umbilical cords. gvhd is lessened compared to conventional marrow donor stem cell transplant. patient needs to be in remission for it to work.

  April 6, 2007 at 11:07 am #17465
  worried daughter

  Participant

  Hi. Thank you for your responses. KWJ, I am also so sorry for your loss. Jaxem: My mother is 64. She is now an inpatient for one month receiving induction chemo: she got a hickman central line to receive continuous chemo, another is 2h/d, another by pill. Chemo is for 1 week and then 3 weeks to recover to go home. Then consolidation chemo :outpatient 2times/week, the hopefully the stem cell transplant. A long road ahead of us.

  April 9, 2007 at 1:34 am #17466
  jaxem

  Member

  jen
  my wife aged 66 went through same thing but did not fair so well w/ induction chemo per heart issues. now going through dacogen rounds which is easier than chemo. everything w/ this disease is a long road. my wife was dx in 2/06. sounds like she ‘s going through a standard chemo routine prior to sct. she’ll do fine. try not to be so worried.

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