I was diagnosed with MDS in May of 2004. I had a cord blood transplant in September, 2004 at the University of MN. For this transplant they did the “mini-prep” which included a reduced amount of chemo and radiation (my age is 59, so they said that I could not handle the regular full dose).
For the transplant, they used two cord bloods. A single cord blood does not have enough volume (stem cells) for an adult. It took only a couple of days to find two cord blood units that matched me.
The transplant was straight-forward, with no real surprises. I had very few negative side affects. The first six months were great…no negative side affects, and my counts were all doing fine. But then things started to go wrong.
Unfortunately, my MDS re-occured about 9 months after my transplant. I thought everything was going well…. Then I had a bone marrow biopsy and it showed that MDS returned.
I had a second transplant in September of this year. For this transplant, they used the same mini-prep but added the Natural Killer Cells and Stem Cells from my son. Within a month, MDS had re-occured.
Now, I am going to Hutch to see what they have to say. I understand that they have over 20 MDS clinical trials going on…perhaps they have one that is appropriate for me.
Do you have specific questions reqarding the umbillical cord transplant?
Dennis
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