Stem Cell Transplantation
Uses your own healthy stem cells to fight your cancer.
What is stem cell transplantation?
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 body’s ability to recover.
How does it work?
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 are harvested from umbilical cords.
Who receives this therapy?
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.
Stem cell transplantation at Cancer Care Northwest
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.
Dr. Kaya is the region’s only physician who has completed a formal stem cell transplantation fellowship. Prior to joining Cancer Care Northwest he worked for three years at a center in North Carolina (Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University), where he gained significant experience in all aspects of stem cell transplantation.
Sarah Ashenbrener, RN, BSN, OCN, is the coordinator of the regional transplant program. Sarah has worked in transplant nursing since graduating from the University of Washington in 2002. Her experience includes inpatient transplant nursing at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (Fred Hutch) and both in/outpatient nursing at University California San Diego.
These two experienced transplant clinicians, with assistance of staff and physicians of Cancer Care Northwest, Inland Northwest Blood Center, Deaconess Medical Center and other local specializing physicians, have successfully completed more than 50 transplants in Spokane.