MI - New hope is available for older people in need of a bone marrow transplant, a procedure typically reserved for patients under age 55 because of its complications. A clinical trial under way at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center is expanding the boundaries of treatment for older people battling life-threatening blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. The new treatment being performed in the clinical trial uses less radiation and chemotherapy, instead allowing the immune system of the transplanted marrow to help fight the disease. The new, less-toxic approach offers an alternative. So someone who's 60 or 65, for example, is now going to be able to receive a bone marrow transplant, which is curative therapy for their malignancy or their condition.
Bone marrow is found inside the body's large bones.
When bone marrow is threatened by blood diseases such as leukemia and Hodgkin's disease, the body cannot protect itself from infection. Bone marrow must be genetically matched to that of the patient's to be transplanted. People over the age of 50 typically have not been candidates for bone marrow transplants because of complications that come with the procedure. Donated marrow is then transplanted, but needs several weeks to engraft and fully produce blood cells. The side effects during this period are serious and life-threatening, says Ferrara.