Bone marrow transplant

[Media June 2004] Twenty months in hospital...Simone Katzenberg thought her bone marrow cancer could be swiftly dealt with. Here, she describes the continuing, agonising battle

Case no. 5 was a middle aged woman who had been prescribed the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug Brufen; again documented to cause blood disorders. This woman died despite several bone marrow transplants from an identical twin sister. This told us that there was more to a successful transplant than just having a good genetic match. Transplant rejection is often due to sensitisation and rejection caused by pre-transplant blood transfusions; though this is not a problem in leukaemia patients.  BLOOD DISORDERS AND CANCERS RESULTING FROM EXPOSURE TO DRUGS, CHEMICALS AND RADIATION by Edward Priestley

A bone marrow transplantation which is basically another way of giving chemotherapy or radiation can run to about 150,000 dollars per person, and is almost never effective. It kills about 25%.. Interview of Dr Ralph Moss, Ph.D.