http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/458786/pinoyabroad/news/fil-am-doctor-in-need-of-bone-marrow-donor-in-maine
I got asked in another thread why I chose allo as opposed to auto. For the person who asked, just read what Tracy J wrote on her blog / Be-The-Match site; it describes why you do an allo in remission:
You may ask yourself, “why would you DO an allogeneic transplant if the patient is in remission?” Well, we know that myeloma WILL come back, but we don’t know when. So think of the remission as temporary. That’s the reason to go ahead with a transplant, especially in a younger patient, when the risk/ benefit calculation tips to the side of benefit.
Now, why couldn’t you go ahead with a transplant in the presence of metabolically active tumors? There is a period of time after the transplant, lasting weeks to months, when there is no treatment against the myeloma – no chemotherapy, no immune system. No chemotherapy is given because that would interfere with the establishment of the new immune system. My immune system is offline during this time, and the new immune system from the donor hasn’t kicked in yet. It’s like that scene in Star Wars at the end where the defense shields are down. Eventually the new immune system from the donor will grow and take over and kick the myeloma in the butt, but that takes a while. So during this vulnerable window the myeloma cells can grow unharassed, unchecked. Clearly then, it’s incumbent to have the myeloma activity at the lowest level possible at the beginning of this whole process.
