Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation

Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation (PBSCT) (also called high dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue).

Palmerston North Hospital Pharmacists reading material in medicine storage room

Peripheral blood stem cell and donor bone marrow transplantation

For certain cancers, mostly of the blood but also some others, treatment can be improved by stem cell transplantation.  Your specialist will advise you if your treatment can be helped by PBSCT. (Not all cancers can be helped by this method.)

The clinical haematology department organises all the PBSCT’s in Palmerston North even for patients who are usually treated by the oncology doctors.

Further information about peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

For certain conditions, usually blood cancers but occasionally for non-cancerous blood disorders a donor bone marrow transplant may be carried out.  The procedure is similar to a peripheral blood stem cell transplant,but bone marrow is collected from a donor, not the patient. The bone marrow collection procedure involves a simple operation, or sometimes stem cells are collected from the donor in a similar manner to stem cell collection for peripheral blood stem cell transplant.

Whichever method is used, the cells are given to the patient in a method similar to a blood transfusion, after high doses of chemotherapy or occasionally radiation therapy; or both.  Donor bone marrow transplants are very intensive treatments.  Although the general procedure is similar to a peripheral blood stem cell transplant, it takes much longer to recover and patients spend longer in hospital.  Because the bone marrow comes from another person, there are more potential problems and risks. 

All patients who may be having a donor bone marrow transplant receive thorough investigations and counselling to ensure they are fit enough to have the treatment.  However, especially in young people, it can be a highly effective method to treat otherwise dangerous or even incurable diseases. The nearest donor bone marrow transplant centre is Wellington; Palmerston North does not have a donor bone marrow unit.

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Last Updated 24/02/2010