Bacterial infections are most common during this time, but viral infections that were controlled by your immune system can become active again. Infectionįor at least the first 6 weeks after transplant, until the new stem cells start making white blood cells (engraftment), you can easily get serious infections. If they aren’t working, they will need to be changed.

You’ll need to tell your transplant team how well the medicines are controlling your nausea and vomiting. In many cases, two or more medicines are used. No one drug can prevent or control chemo-related nausea and vomiting 100% of the time. Preventive treatment should start before chemo is given and should continue for as long as the chemo is likely to cause vomiting, which can be up to 7 to 10 days after the last dose. As much as possible, the goal is to prevent nausea and vomiting, because it’s easier to prevent it than it is to stop it once it starts. Nausea and vomitingīecause chemotherapy drugs can cause severe nausea and vomiting, doctors often give anti-nausea medicines at the same time as chemo to try to prevent it. If mouth pain or sores make it hard to eat or swallow, your transplant team can help you develop a plan to manage your symptoms. Good nutrition is important for people with cancer. It usually gets better within a few weeks after treatment, but it can make it very painful to eat and drink. Mucositis (inflammation or sores in the mouth) is a short-term side effect that can happen with chemo and radiation. Ask for their after hours contact numbers to make sure you will be able to do this. Some of these problems can be life-threatening, so it’s important to be able to reach your doctor or transplant team at night, on weekends, and during holidays. This is not a complete list and you should tell your doctor or transplant team about any problems you have or changes you notice. Some can be prevented, and most can be treated to help you feel better. Your transplant team can help you cope with side effects. Others may be side effects of the conditioning treatments themselves. Referrals are never required to schedule a consultation with Moffitt.Many of the problems that can happen shortly after the transplant come from having the bone marrow wiped out by medicines or radiation just before the transplant. To learn more about bone marrow transplantation as a treatment for solid tumors, call 1-88 or submit a new patient registration form online. Our expert oncologists can help you determine if a bone marrow transplant is a viable treatment option for your specific diagnosis. Additionally, all of our treatments – from chemotherapy and transplantation to pain management and emotional support – are provided in a single, convenient location. At Moffitt, patients who are considering bone marrow transplantation receive multiple expert opinions, which helps to ensure that the option they choose is appropriate for their needs. When successful, a transplant may increase a patient’s chance of long-term survival, although supportive care (such as treatments to manage the side effects of chemotherapy) may be required to maintain the patient’s quality of life.īecause a bone marrow transplant is still largely an experimental treatment for most solid tumors, Moffitt Cancer Center’s expert oncologists assess a number of individualized factors, such as the stage and location of a patient’s cancer, before recommending it as an option. The goal is to destroy as many of the patient’s existing stem cells as possible, so that the transplanted cells can replace them efficiently. Researchers are now studying whether the same outcome can be achieved when treating solid tumors, such as:īefore a bone marrow transplant is performed, a patient will typically need to complete a conditioning treatment, which usually consists of high-dose chemotherapy or radiation therapy. In the treatment of hematological cancers, such as myeloma and leukemia, a bone marrow graft can potentially eliminate malignant cells within the recipient’s body. When a patient is diagnosed with a cancer that is generally not curable through chemotherapy or radiation therapy, a transplant may be considered as an alternative. A bone marrow transplant may be a treatment option for certain solid tumors.

Stem cell transplant cost