Panorama

[allanah]

Hi

Watching panorama where they are treating ms by giving patients chemo then a bone Marrow transplant and rebooting their immune system to before their MS.

wouldn't it be wonderful if that could help RA X

[SAMBS]

Hi allanah, yes I'm watching - I have blood disorder and other conditions and am wondering if it could also help me! I have an autoimmune disease that started with TB - there are too many conditions arising these days!! Thanks for posting reminder. Shirley x

[Hidden]

Hi Allanah

It has been done already! There's a lass who goes to my unit who had stem cell transplant for her RA. But the chemo made her too ill.

Here's the link.

nature.com/bmt/journal/v32/...

[allanah in reply to Hidden]

My word , thanks for the link ! You clever girl you!

[katekelly]

I remember talk of this some years ago. for some reason it had only a small number in a trial and seemed to 'disappear' off the radar.

[sylvi]

I said the self same thing to my hubby. xxxx

[bpeal1]

I remember reading somewhere several years a go that it had been tried but that the positive effect didn't last very long before the RA came back.

However I have just read on NRAS website that there is another trial in Belgium at the moment. Hopefully they will have more success.

[Patsy-57]

Just what I was thinking too. Surely they will look into other auto immune diseases. But the research is in its early days.

Patsy 57

[Hidden]

It's been used in Scleroderrma and also in Myelofibrosis (scarring of the bone marrow). It looks promising but it's still got huge risks attached.

[helixhelix]

Wow! How things have changed in just a few years.

[MickeyJoints]

My best mate underwent a similar process for teratoma. Little metastasies of bone calcifications in his brain, lungs, liver, kidneys.

They took loads of blood, stored the stem cells and blasted him with chemo agents. Once cleared out, re-infuse the stem cells to restore the marrow and get his system working again.

While he is alive as a result of the treatment, it was a savage intervention. Loads of risks and quite horrible.

I would be quite circumspect before considering this route.

[Cagsie]

Thinking the same thing, wouldn't it be great x

[allanah in reply to Cagsie]

Yes indeed ! Maybe not our generation but for future sufferers treatments.

[Hidden]

I've seen people on other sites say they'd be willing but I'm not sure they realise the implications. I believe the stats suggest only 75% survive the first the year alone. That doesn't mention people who are living with serious complications. Therefore, I'm not sure it will ever be in the future for the vast majority of people with autoimmune diseases, unless the risks of living with the disease outweigh the risks of chemotherapy that completely eradicates your immune system. If you receive donor stem cells, your body can reject them. There is so much that can go wrong. If multiple organs were failing and this could help, then potentially but otherwise, I suspect this is pie in the sky.