Side Effects of Stem Cell or Bone Marrow Transplant Mouth and Throat Pain. Interstitial pneumonitis and other lung problems. Low levels of platelets, making it difficult for blood to clot. It is necessary to take a shower every day to reduce the risk of infection.
If you find it difficult to shower, let your nurse know for help. The room is cleaned and the sheets are changed every day. You are also at risk of infection by some foods. The rules on what you can eat are different in different hospitals.
While you are hospitalized and if you need it, you eat less likely to cause an infection. Talk to your nurse and dietitian about how to achieve a good balance between what you want to eat and what could cause an infection. Your platelet level will drop after treatment. Platelets help blood to clot.
A low platelet level means you are at risk of bleeding. You may get bruises more easily than usual. The stem cell transplant process can be physically and mentally challenging. Effects of treatment may include hair loss, skin rash, swelling, weight loss or gain, and decreased sex drive.
Stem cell or bone marrow transplants are complex treatments that carry a significant risk of serious complications. The immune system takes even longer to recover than does the production of white blood cells, resulting in susceptibility to some bacterial, fungal and viral infections for weeks or months. After initial recovery from autologous stem cell transplant, patients are often required to take antibiotics for weeks or months to prevent infection from occurring. Prophylactic administration of antibiotics can prevent Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and some bacterial and fungal infections.
Prophylactic antibiotics may also decrease the incidence of shingles infection, which usually occurs after high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation. Graft failure is extremely unusual in autologous stem cell transplantation. Graft failure occurs when bone marrow function does not return. The graft may not grow in the patient, resulting in bone marrow failure with absence of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelet production.
This causes infection, anemia and bleeding. Graft failure can also occur in patients with extensive spinal fibrosis before transplantation, a viral disease, or from the use of some medications (such as methotrexate). In patients with leukemia, graft failure is often associated with cancer recurrence; leukemia cells can inhibit the growth of transplanted cells. In some cases, the reasons for graft failure are unknown.
Side effects have different levels of severity, especially when it comes to stem cell treatment. Most risks of the procedure cause short-term side effects, such as infection, bleeding, and pain due to inflammation of the tissues or nerves. In preparation for a stem cell transplant, you'll need chemotherapy to kill damaged or diseased blood cells. If you're concerned about the effects of treatment on your ability to have children, you should discuss this with your doctor or a member of the care team before the stem cell transplant process begins.
Recovery may take longer if you have had your own stem cells (instead of stem cells from a donor). Patients are often required to take antibiotics to prevent infection from occurring for weeks or months after initial recovery from allogeneic stem cell transplant. Lymphoma patients treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation appear to have about 8 to 10 percent chance of developing secondary cancer if treated with whole-body irradiation and 2 to 4 percent if treated with high-dose chemotherapy and without radiation. The duration of bone marrow suppression can be shortened by infusing an optimal number of stem cells and administering growth factors that accelerate the recovery of blood cell production.
Removal of T lymphocytes from the stem cell collection and immunosuppressive drugs such as methotrexate, cyclosporine, prednisone and other new agents administered after infusion of bone marrow or blood stem cells are used to prevent or ameliorate graft-versus-host disease. In a report that evaluated nearly 20,000 patients treated with allogeneic stem cell transplant, 80 patients developed a new cancer. The type and severity of side effects of high-dose chemotherapy and allogeneic stem cell transplantation are influenced by the degree of HLA match between donor and recipient, the condition and age of the patient, the specific treatment regimen of high-dose chemotherapy, and the degree of suppression of immune system. If more stem cells from one donor are available, they may be treated with a second transplant or infusion of residual lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) from the donor.
Mucositis is one of the most common side effects of intensive care that precedes stem cell transplantation. Stem cell or bone marrow transplants are treatments for some types of cancer, such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Graft-versus-host disease can also have an anti-cancer effect because donor lymphocytes can kill both cancer cells and normal cells. .
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