I was one year away from my allogenic stem cell transplant and relapsed with an MRD at 1.5%. The doctor who did the transplant recommended a treatment of Vidaza combined with Venetoclax as the first step in “salvage therapy”. There is no explanation as to what happened but my counts have never recovered and I am getting transfusions sometimes 2-3x/week of platelets (for sure) and red blood cells. Initially the idea was to push the cancer back into remission and then do a donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) to “boost” the immune system to fight off the cancer.
Graft vs. Host disease was a concern for the stem cell doctor and he recommended that I go home and “take what God gives me” – prognosis is months.
Has anyone experienced graft vs. host disease? Has anyone had a DLI during a transplant relapse that can share their experience? My donor cells are grafted at 98% but I’m told the bone marrow is “clogged” with cells from the old immune system that are blocking healthy production. Any information would be helpful as I have to make a decision on the DLI by this Monday.
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