KESJ: 15 May 2009

Friday, May 15, 2009

15 May 2009

Today Jeremy visited the nuclear medicine department at hospital for a GFR (Glomerular Filtration Rate) test to check his kidney function. A special dye was injected into a vein in his arm. A sample of his blood was taken from his central line at 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours after the injection, to measure how much dye was still in his blood. The GFR test shows how well his kidneys are working by measuring how quickly the dye is removed from his blood. Jeremy will have his kidney function monitored regularly during treatment, because some chemo drugs have the potential to affect kidney function.

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Definitions

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) - a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. ALL affects the type of developing white blood cells known as lymphocytes. It is the most common form of childhood leukaemia, and the most common type of childhood cancer. It also occurs in adults.

Blast cells - immature blood cells normally found in the bone marrow. Blast cells normally constitute up to 5% of all bone marrow cells. These cells divide and replenish all the normal blood cells in the marrow and circulating blood. Acute leukaemia is characterised by an accumulation of abnormal blast cells that take over the marrow and spill out into the blood stream.

Bone marrow transplant - the process of replacing bone marrow cells (stem cells) that are unhealthy, with stem cells that are healthy. The healthy stem cells are re-infused intravenously through the central line, after very strong chemotherapy and/or radiation to kill unhealthy stem cells. The re-infusion of healthy stem cells essentially rescues the patient from the chemotherapy and/or radiation, by enabling his or her bone marrow to start producing new blood cells.