If at any point it appeared that the treatment was not generating progress, we would switch protocols immediately. I am happy to report that this never became an issue. From the very first series of treatments my tumor shrank in size, and continued to do so until it was fully operable. A complete surgical resection was achieved in May of 1996. The basic concept of stem cell rescue is similar to that of a bone marrow transplant.
Stem cells are actually bone marrow cells that live in the blood.
For this particular procedure, a Hickman catheter was inserted into my chest prior to receiving chemotherapy. This is a Y-shaped catheter with 2 tubes, one coming from an artery, and one returning to a vein. For several mornings I lay in a hospital bed for a period of four hours during which my stem cells were collected from my blood in a manner quite similar to that of platelet pheresis. The remainder of my blood, supplemented by some saline to compensate for volume loss, was returned through the second tube. This procedure was done prior to beginning chemotherapy because, as one progresses through a series of treatments, these stem cells are killed along with the tumor cells.