KESJ: 10 August 2009

Monday, August 10, 2009

10 August 2009

Although Jeremy's neutrophil count was 0.5 this morning, the doctors were happy with his overall blood counts and decided to go ahead with his bone marrow aspirate and lumbar puncture today. It will take about a week to obtain the proper results of the bone marrow aspirate (the MRD - Minimal Residual Disease), but at the moment the plan is that he will be admitted to hospital next Monday for a week of pre-bone marrow transplant chemo.

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

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.