If money was not an obstacle????

Trinity23 · New User Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 5

For treatment of Multiple Myeloma.....which country has the best technology, treatment center, treatment, and doctor is the world? What treatment would you recommend?

bbking · New User Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 6

Hello,

Have you considered BMT's? I have quite a bit of information regarding this for people in your situation. you can contact me at s6kinase at gmail.com
regards

Trinity23 · New User Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 5

Thanx bbKing.....I have emailed you, I hope i got the address correct.

MD Anderson centre is all over the internet....but I wonder if they really have the best specialists.Someone told me Europe was all the go for this.
I'm very unsure since all websites claim to have the best doctors.
Stem cell and Chemo treatment i think was chosen becuase level three multiple myeloma needed drastic action.........this was only diagnosed a couple of weeks ago, and already in stage three.
What i'm wondering now is what is the absolute best treatment these days, that we may be able to turn to when the MM is somewhat stabilized....with so many treatments, i'm kinda lost.
Trin

Trinity23 · New User Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 5

BB......I was just looking up BMT....Bone Marrow Transplant...this isn't an option, my male friend has no family...I think this is why stem cell was also suggested.
Trin

bbking · New User Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 6

There is a HUGE disconnect between the cutting edge of science and medicine. Of course all clinical medicine is going to be behind research but some clinical centers are far ahead of others. What is hard to understand is what MD means. If you go read the med school haemotology text it reads like an I See Sam book. Doctors don't really become experts until they start their fellowships and have the time and requirement to really delve into the research, which was is all done by PhD's. I looked at the owner of this site, and he is a fellow in haemotology, so he is going to know what he is talking about, but then, as a professional he can't even TELL you everything because of his professional liability and the really bad environment we have that makes you the patient run and sue because you are not happy that the world has afflicted you with a disease. All this paperwork that the doctor must now do takes away his time from researching the diseases and makes him unable to compete for federal grants against PhD's who spend all day every day reading while their grad students do the work in the lab. There is one caveat though, although I am free to tell you whatever exists I can't cure you. It DOES take a doctor to do that, I have no idea if your blood pressure medication is going to react with the diarrhea you get from c diff after chemo.

What I can tell you is that stem cell therapy, formerly known as bone marrow transplants (they collect cells from the donors blood system these days and inject them into you,) is the only real cure for many blood diseases and is in my mind a damn good one at that. Keep in mind that you die from a Bone Marrow transplant because of infection, which is the same reason you die from chemotherapy, so if you can go to a center that is doing a new protocol and have the same risk of dying as with chemo but a better chance of long term survival then why not do it? because you are afraid and because all our lives we have heard that a bone marrow transplant is HUGE ordeal.

I figured this all out too late, my father passed away friday night, but I had gotten him to within one day of a transplant in two different centers before he had a heart attack and a lung "spot". You see what you must understand is that if you try chemo, or multiple rounds, your body is going to be too weak to handle a BMT because you have to be in great condition or THEY WON'T DO IT. Point being is you have to go "for the gold" while you are healthy enough to do it.

You do not need a matched sibling donor to get a transplant and most people don't have one unless there are 4 or more siblings. There is a national bone marrow registry that had ten matches for my father (who is white, that's important.) There are asian registries, and I am not saying that a black man can't match a white, because he can and a baptist pastor saved one of my cousins, but there is just a higher percentage of white donors for white patients in this country.

Trinity23 · New User Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 5

bbking.....
[b]You see what you must understand is that if you try chemo, or multiple rounds, your body is going to be too weak to handle a BMT because you have to be in great condition or THEY WON'T DO IT. Point being is you have to go "for the gold" while you are healthy enough to do it. [/b]

He has begun Chemo...and I am under the understanding that stem cell would take place after chemo is completed...six rounds of chemo, two weeks each apart.....recieving it slowly over a few days each time.He has had one round of chemo.

Trinity23 · New User Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 5

ok, so now I know that "the patient' is on the register for a stem cell......what I don't understand is why they would put him on the register in the first place when they know he is going to have atleast 6 rounds of chemo....if what you say is correct, they wont give him the stem cell treatment anyway?
Or would that totally and wholly depend on his overall condition?
He is rather young, that could be on his side...right or not?

I'm open to any suggestions, ideas.....anything you can give me...i'm not much of chemo fan either....but he was told that this initial chemo WAS necessary because his M cell count is so high....what is your "personal"opinion on this?.......of course I wont ask for you to give me a professional opinion at all, since you are not taking care of this patient....It's purely hypothetical....consider it was "any"patient given the limited information I have given you.
Thanx bb

bbking · New User Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 6

normally your disease should be in remission before you are given a stem cell transplant. That is why he is being given the chemo..

there are some protocols though that don't require this, which is in case he doesn't go into remission.

but first is to see whether or not he does.

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