Big Gains in Bone Marrow Transplant Survival Since the Mid-2000s

Bone marrow transplant

Bone marrow transplant or BMT is a surgery for patients with specific cancers or conditions. BMT transfuses healthy bone marrow cells into a person after their own diseased bone marrow has been treated to remove the damaged cells. Since 1968, bone marrow transplantation has successfully treated leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, immune deficiency syndromes, and various solid tumor malignancies.

Since the mid-2000s and the bone marrow transplant cost in India. This article will read about the big gains in BMT survival since the mid-2000s. So, let’s dive into the post.

BMT survival since the mid-2000s

In 2010, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found a significant increase in survival for patients who received a bone marrow transplant between the 1990s and the early 2000s. Annals of Internal Medicine research stated that the overall death risk following transplant decreased by 34% between 2003 and 2007.

As per the corresponding author Dr. George McDonald, an emeritus member of Fred Hutch, those advantages result from a significant decrease in transplant-related problems. Over the last 25 years, the death rates are primarily caused by infections, and liver, kidneys, and lung disorders have decreased from 30% to 11%.

Other findings, according to McDonald, were not as striking. Cancer recurrence is a key concern for the transplant sector, he says. The risk of death from cancer relapse decreased, although not as much as the risk of death from comorbidities.

Nonetheless, the findings should comfort researchers and physicians at Fred Hutch and others who have worked for decades to enhance the process. According to McDonald, he saw his first transplant patient in 1972. Moreover, he attributes the better results to consistent gains achieved at transplant facilities from every major medical profession.

Clinical Practice Advances

Patients suffering from blood cancers and other disorders can benefit from bone marrow transplants. The procedure includes infusing healthy, blood-forming stem cells from a donor into the patient's circulation. Then the patient receives chemotherapy and/or radiation to eradicate their unhealthy bone marrow during these treatments.

McDonald and colleagues examined the results of 1,148 patients who had transplants at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Fred Hutch's clinical care partner, between 2003 and 2007. They then compared them to 1,131 individuals who performed operations between 2013 and 2017. McDonald stated that the most current group was older and worse when they had their transplant. Nonetheless, they outperformed the prior batch.

In absolute terms, the frequency of overall death was 40% from 2013 to 2017. In fact, this proportion will undoubtedly rise with more follow-up, according to McDonald.

McDonald pointed out that because the study was a retrospective review of previously obtained data, it is impossible to tell for definite what caused the better results. "However, we can make very informed judgments as to why we are improving," he added. Those informed predictions incorporate clinical practice adjustments prompted by current research at Fred Hutch and elsewhere, such as:

  • Improvement in the methods for preventing, detecting, and treating viral, fungal, and bacterial infections that risk immunocompromised transplant patients.
  • Identification of individuals at high risk of fatal consequences before transplantation
  • The use of less-harmful chemotherapy and radiation regimens to prepare patients for transplant, particularly those at high risk.
  • Advances in the prevention of graft-vs.-host disease, or GVHD, in which donor immune cells assault the organs of a recipient.
  • Use of the lower dosages of the immunosuppressive medication prednisone to treat GVHD, resulting in fewer infections.

 

Steps to follow

In the future, McDonald believes that more clinical research by infectious disease experts and medical specialists in liver, renal, and lung illness will help drive the risk of mortality from transplant-related complications into the single digits.

This would expedite the practice of bone marrow transplantation well beyond cancer therapy, according to Dr. Fred Appelbaum, Fred Hutch's executive vice president, and deputy director, and a world expert in the study and treatment of blood malignancies.

In a nutshell, as with any treatment, the prognosis and long-term survival of bone marrow transplant patients might vary substantially. The rising number of transplants for an expanding range of disorders and continued medical advancements have significantly improved the result of bone marrow transplants in children and adults. Following a bone marrow transplant, the patient needs ongoing follow-up treatment. New approaches to improving therapy and reducing difficulties and adverse effects of a bone marrow transplant are constantly being developed.

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