Markalark
04-26-2005, 08:14 PM
Hello !
We'll make this short and sweet. ( i hope )
I've been diagnosed about 7 months ago with Acute M. Leukemia. Since then, i've had a LOT :) of chemo to try and get rid of it. And it seems that it worked ! The doctors told me i was in total remission after the first dose. So far so good.
The thing is, they're not quite sure i have AML... One hospital (using older testing procedures) says that i definitely had AML. But this other one, using more recent tests aren't quite sure if it's AML. It also has the same makings of some other kind of leukemia (i'm not quite sure which one though...) They've rarely (if ever) seen this over there. They're quite a bit stumped on that. So their first instinct is "we're not sure if it's going to react the same way as regular AML, so we're not sure that the regular induction + 3 consolidation chemo treatments will work as well as it usually does.. We suggest a bone marrow transplant."
Now they found a donor (not someone from my family though). And now they want to know if i want to go along with it.
My question is this: does anyone have any numbers, or at least ballpark figures on the chance of cancer coming back WITHOUT the transplant and WITH the transplant (in the average regular shmoe). Is it a really big difference ? are we talking 10% difference ? 25% ? I don't really feel like going through this if there's no significant diffence... I am after all in remission, so we're not talking about finding a way to get rid of cancer because the chemo didn't work. We're just looking to find a way of trying to reduce the chances of it coming back..
Thanks !
Marc
We'll make this short and sweet. ( i hope )
I've been diagnosed about 7 months ago with Acute M. Leukemia. Since then, i've had a LOT :) of chemo to try and get rid of it. And it seems that it worked ! The doctors told me i was in total remission after the first dose. So far so good.
The thing is, they're not quite sure i have AML... One hospital (using older testing procedures) says that i definitely had AML. But this other one, using more recent tests aren't quite sure if it's AML. It also has the same makings of some other kind of leukemia (i'm not quite sure which one though...) They've rarely (if ever) seen this over there. They're quite a bit stumped on that. So their first instinct is "we're not sure if it's going to react the same way as regular AML, so we're not sure that the regular induction + 3 consolidation chemo treatments will work as well as it usually does.. We suggest a bone marrow transplant."
Now they found a donor (not someone from my family though). And now they want to know if i want to go along with it.
My question is this: does anyone have any numbers, or at least ballpark figures on the chance of cancer coming back WITHOUT the transplant and WITH the transplant (in the average regular shmoe). Is it a really big difference ? are we talking 10% difference ? 25% ? I don't really feel like going through this if there's no significant diffence... I am after all in remission, so we're not talking about finding a way to get rid of cancer because the chemo didn't work. We're just looking to find a way of trying to reduce the chances of it coming back..
Thanks !
Marc