Submitted by donnaberry on Mon, 2008-06-16 22:27.
Does anyone have any info on this....I am in the USA my (considerably older) brother is a perfect match for me he is in the UK. Has anyone ever heard of harvesting a possible donor's BM for future use i.e if I get worse and that is my only option or he dies???
Donna x
Dear Donna,
If you have a matched donor it is possible for the donor cells to be harvested and kept for your sole use at some future date.
My brother's cells were harvested as soon as I was diagnosed in Dec. '98 and they were kept in the 'fridge' at the transplant centre.
At that time I did not need his cells as I went on to one of the early trials for imatinib/Glivec in the US and responded.
However in 2003 I developed a Glivec resistant mutation and went on to have a transplant with by brothers frozen cells in October the same year.... if you go to my diary you can see pictures of the cells being thawed before being infused into my vein ... go to home page to access the diary.
However, in your case there may be a cost implication for long term storage of cells in the US, so I am not sure what you would do about that.... but if your brother lives in the UK then it may be possible for his cells to be harvested here.
I hope this is of some help. It is always best to start a new post thread if you have a specific question. Sorry your question got lost on an entirely different subject thread.
best wishes,
Sandy