About stem cell therapy
An autologous stem cell transplant involves removing some of the patient’s blood stem cells, getting a high dose of chemotherapy, and then re-infusing the patient’s stem cells back to you. This treatment is performed by KHSC’s malignant hematology unit, and it allows patients to be treated with much higher doses of chemotherapy. Stem cell therapy is used to treat cancers that may be more aggressive or harder to treat with other forms of systemic treatment.
How it works:
- Patients are given medications that cause the body to produce more stem cells. These stem cells spill out of the bone marrow into the bloodstream where nurses can collect them.
- Cells are collected, using a process known as “apheresis.” The patient is connected to a machine where the blood is pulled from the body and separated in a centrifuge. The stem cells are collected and the rest of the blood is returned to the body.
- The stem cells are sent for processing and are then frozen at a temperature of at least -180 degrees celcius, until they are needed.
- Once the patient has been deemed safe to proceed with transplant by the health care team, they are admitted for high-dose chemotherapy. This chemotherapy is very effective at damaging cancer cells in the patient’s blood, but it is also very hard on the healthy bone marrow cells.
- Once the chemotherapy has been cleared from the patients’ blood stream, it is safe to give the stem cells back to the patient via a transfusion. The cells are thawed at the patient’s bedside and are reintroduced back into the body where they will help the patient recover by producing healthy red blood cells.
The purpose of the transplant may be to cure the disease or control the disease symptoms and improve your quality of life, and the success rate for this procedure varies based on individual circumstances.
About the KHSC program
KHSC’s autologous stem cell program is one of six stem cell transplant centres in Ontario, and one of only five sites that offers full services (from referral to consult, collection and transplant). The program performs between 70-80 stem cell collections, and 50-55 transplants each year (sometimes patients need more than one collection to obtain cells).
As part of the Southeast Regional Cancer Program, it provides services along the corridor between Trenton and Smiths Falls, meaning that these patients don’t need to drive to Toronto or Ottawa to receive care. But the KHSC program is also supporting programs across the province that may be over capacity. 42 per cent of patients treated by the program are from outside of the region.
Of all patients treated by the malignant hematology team at KHSC, 65 per cent have myeloma, 34 per cent have lymphoma and one per cent have other solid germ cell cancers.
The malignant hematology team is committed to the highest standard of clinical practice and is FACT accredited, meaning safer treatments for patients.
