When is a stem cell transplant needed?
Every year, about 300 Swedes receive new stem cells through a transplantation. A stem cell transplantation may be necessary when the body can no longer produce healthy blood cells on its own - which is life-threatening.
A stem cell transplant can be life-saving for about 70 different diagnoses, but the most common ones are these:
Blood cancer
Like leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma. The treatment for cancer damages the healthy bone marrow that normally forms blood cells. Therefore, new healthy stem cells are needed to build a new blood system. The stem cells can also help to fight any remaining cancer cells. Today, leukemia is the most common diagnosis that requires a stem cell transplant.
Aplastic anemia
An uncommon but serious disease where the bone marrow 'stops working' and doesn't produce enough blood cells. This leads to a lack of oxygen in the body, a weakened immune system, and a risk of bleeding. If medications don't help, a stem cell transplant is often needed. The new stem cells take over the job and rebuild a functioning blood formation.
Congenital immunodeficiency diseases
When the immune system isn't functioning properly, the patient can suffer from serious infections. In such cases, a stem cell transplant can provide new healthy stem cells that can build up a functioning immune system.
Hereditary metabolic disorders
Some rare diseases prevent the body from properly breaking down substances. New stem cells can sometimes help the body to function normally.
After tough cancer treatment
Sometimes such strong chemotherapy or radiation therapy is used that the bone marrow is damaged and stops producing blood cells. Then new stem cells are needed to rebuild the blood. This restores the immune system and the body's ability to transport oxygen and stop bleeding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Blood stem cells are the cells that form blood. They are located in the bone marrow, inside the bones. By giving a sick person new blood stem cells, they can form new, healthy bone marrow and new, healthy blood.
HLA antigens are like small markers, or ID tags on your cells. They show which HLA type you have – something you inherit from your parents.
There are many different variants, which can make it difficult to find the right match for a transplantation. The chance that you and a sibling have the same HLA type is about 25%, that is one in four.
In an allogeneic stem cell transplantation, the stem cells are taken from a donor. The donor is either a family member, often a sibling, or an unrelated donor from a registry. The choice of donor is based on the HLA types of the patient and the donor.
Stem cell transplants are performed to treat certain types of cancer or blood diseases. Currently, leukemia is the most common disease where blood stem cells are often used as a last resort.
There are many other diseases that can be treated in the same way, including severe anemia, immunodeficiency diseases, and metabolic disorders. In addition to leukemia, examples of cancers treated with stem cell transplantation include lymphoma and myeloma.
Currently, a stem cell transplant can be potentially life-saving for around 70 different diseases.
As soon as the blood stem cells have been checked, labeled, and packaged, they are transported by a courier in special containers that maintain an optimal temperature directly to the hospital where the patient is located. In exceptional cases, they are frozen before transportation, for example, if there is a long journey to the patient's hospital in another part of the world.
"I wasn't ready to die yet"
In just a couple of weeks, Julia went from being an energetic, active student studying to become a Master of Science in Engineering to sitting in a hospital room receiving a blood cancer diagnosis. To survive, her doctors needed to find a matching stem cell donor.