Part 2 - Anyone Want a Bone Marrow Transplant or
maybe a Stem Cell Transplant?
I couldn’t sleep thinking about this “cure”. I was wondering is there is a rush to yell cure?
Researchers gave 10 patients ages 16 to 45 bone marrow Stem Cells. They gave them low levels of radiation, chemotherapy and high levels of immune suppressant drugs.
People with SCD normally have spleen problems; this makes them more prone to infection. Think about the infection possibilities when you give a person, who’s already catching everything that blows by, an immune suppressant drug. You may have received a cure for sickle cell, but now you may get cancer to replace it.
Researchers said, “Though most patients in the study are still taking immune-suppressant drugs, researchers hope to eventually wean them off the medications.” Check out the side effects of Alemtuzumab, a drug used to suppress immune system T-cells, and Sirolimus, an immune suppressant to fight rejection.
Let’s not run to the hills crying CURE until you can give a person a better quality of life, not replace their problem with another one.
I have heard that bone marrow transplant is becoming successful and its success rates are increasing. Genes mismatch results in success of bone marrow transplants. Bone Marrow Transplantation is removal of the sickly part from a patient and replacing it with a normal complement from a donor.
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