Cancer Care Northwest Stem Cell Transplantation

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Uses your own healthy stem cells to fight your cancer.

High-dose chemotherapy can be very effective in destroying certain cancers, but the intense therapy can also damage healthy cells and increase your chance of infection and other health problems.

In a process called autologous stem cell transplantation, doctors collect your own stem cells before you receive the high-dose chemotherapy. They return the healthy stem cells to you after treatment, improving your bodys ability to recover.

Before your high-dose chemotherapy, your doctor uses a machine similar to a dialysis machine to collect and temporarily store your stem cells. Stem cells, found mainly in bone marrow, are the cells from which all blood cells develop.

After the high-dose chemotherapy is delivered to kill the cancer cells, your healthy stem cells are returned to you intravenously (IV) to replace the stem cells that were destroyed by the therapy. Your body uses these stem cells to reestablish your bone marrow where your blood cells are produced.

This is very different than the often controversial field of stem cell research where stem cells done on embryos.

Stem cell transplantation and high-dose chemotherapy is most often used to treat patients with multiple myeloma and recurrent lymphoma (including Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma). This treatment modality is occasionally used to treat other cancers such as recurrent testicular cancer.

Cancer Care Northwest is a regional leader in stem cell transplantation.

Our very own Dr. Hakan Kaya is director of the Inland Northwest Myeloma/Lymphoma and Transplant Program, a collaboration between Cancer Care Northwest, Deaconess Medical Center and the Inland Northwest Blood Center.

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Cancer Care Northwest Stem Cell Transplantation