Rather than receiving two transplants from themselves, researchers are now reporting that younger patients who have been diagnosed with myeloma survived longer if they received a stem cell transplant from themselves but then followed by one from a matched sibling.
Of the total who develop myeloma, a blood cancer, only a fraction would find this protocol to be a good treatment alternative.
“It’s a good study and it gives important perspective, and it will be useful for some patients but it’s a small minority of myeloma patients,” said Dr. Marshall, executive vice president of research and medical programs at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine