Autologous Stem Cell Transplant

Board-certified in medical oncology and hematology, Ram Kancherla, MD, is a respected presence in the Poughkeepsie, New York medical sphere who guides the Hudson Valley Cancer Center as managing partner. A former director of the autologous stem cell transplant program of the New York Medical College Department of Medicine, Dr. Ram Kancherla, has also authored many medical articles, including one on multiple myeloma autologous stem cell transplants.

Also known as autologous bone marrow transplant, autologous stem cell transplant is a procedure involving harvesting healthy stem cells from a patient's blood and returning the harvested stem cells into the bone marrow of the patient in the future when their bone marrow becomes compromised from an injury or the side effect of a treatment. The advantage of an autologous bone stem cell transplant is the certainty of tissue compatibility. Since the stem cells are harvested from the patient, they will be compatible with their bone marrow tissue compared to when the stem cells come from a donor whose cells may be incompatible.

In particular, autologous stem cell transplants are crucial to aggressive cancer treatments. Cancers of the immune system (lymphoma), plasma cell cancer (myeloma), and blood platelet disorders, among others, are generally treated with high doses of radiation and chemotherapy, which can damage the bone marrow. All types of blood cells (red blood cells and white blood cells) and wound-healing blood platelets are formed in the bone marrow. Defective bone marrow can result in symptoms and complications of low healthy blood cell count leading to anemia (which results in fatigue), nonstop bleeding (due to low blood platelets), infections (due to a shortage of white blood cells), bone pain, and kidney damage.

With autologous stem cell transplant following aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the chances of developing these complications may be mitigated. This is because the damaged bone marrow stem cells will be replaced by healthy stem cells, thereby fostering healing of the injury.