The usual blood tests, made periodically, can differentiate between an early diagnosis and a blood disease discovered too late, attract the attention of the specialists. The chances of survival have improved remarkably over the last 20 years, and the transplant of hematopoietic cells play a crucial role.
We need new donors, I draw attention to the photo specialists: Patient 2.0
The simple gesture to present yourself periodically for the collection of usual blood samples can make the difference between an early diagnosis and a blood disease discovered too late, the specialists have attracted attention, during an event organized by the Federation of Cancer Patients Associations in Romania in partnership with the National Register of volunteer Donunar, with the Stem Stem Cancer. May 28).
The most vulnerable category in the face of these conditions is people over 65. The good news is that, although there are serious diseases, blood cancers and rare diseases in this spectrum today have the chance to be kept in the brake due to the medical progress made in the last 20 years. Although on the right track, Romania still has to recover in terms of patients access to the latest treatment variants.
„ÎIn the last 20-30 years, we have registered remarkable progressn understanding the biology of hematological cancers. This has allowed the identification of important molecular targets and the development of personalized therapies, which significantly increase the chances of survival. Fortunately, many of these treatments are already available and reimbursed in Romania ”said Prof. Dr. Daniel Coriu, hematologist, director of the Center for HEMATOLOGY and medullary transplant. 25 years ago, survival at 5 years was 20% in patients with such diagnoses, so that at present the survival at 10 was 80%. “We are talking about the time before 2000 and after 2000”, Dr. Daniel Coriu pointed out during the event transmitted by the Patient Platform 2.0.
In order for patients to benefit from medical advances, the condition is to be diagnosed in time, blood tests remaining a basic tool for both incipient and monitoring of an already diagnosed disease.
“If we want Romania to have fewer late diagnoses and more survival stories, we must start with simple things: regular controls and blood tests ”, Cezar Irimia, the president of the Federation of Cancer Patients in Romania said.
Hematopoietic cell transplantation, the chance to find a compatible donor
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the only curative treatment option for some of patients with blood cancers. The chance of life means finding a compatible donor. This donor is sought in the first phase in the family, where the chance of compatibility is much higher. If it does not exist, the donors from the national register of volunteer donors of hematopoietic stem cells, who have been in Romania for 11 years.
“Today, on the World Day of Blood Cancele, we stop for a few moments from the daily rate to honor the struggle of those who face these ruthless diseases. As an institution, we are deeply engaged in promoting the donation of hematopoietic stem cells and we actively involve for the extension of the register. It takes several volunteer donors registered in the register, more information and more courage. I urge you to become good ambassadors. Talk about the donation of hematopoietic stem cells, inform yourself and, why not, register in the register. It is a simple gesture by which you provide real chances of survival to patients who need a stem cell transplant. On behalf of all those who fight with blood cancers, thank you for support, solidarity and hope ”, said Dr. Traian Laurian Arghișan, director of the National Register of Voluntary Donators of Hematopoietic Stem Cells.
Currently, in the national register of volunteer donors of hematopoietic stem cells, over 106,000 donors are registered. “We are a small register compared to the other registers ”said Dr. Arghișan, giving the example of the German register, which includes 6 million donors, or the US register, with 9 million donors. The national register is part of the international network, so we benefit from the multiplication effect. “Basically, when we do a search for a Romanian patient, we are looking for 43 million registered donors, so the whole base of donors ”, said Dr. Arghișan. Most donors for Romanian patients have been selected from Germany and Poland, but this is because, in the case of transplant, there is an important factor that is taken into account: the stem cells do not survive more than 72 hours, and the specialists choose the donor from a certain area, calculating that, with all the time, until the time they arrive, in the moment. “That’s why, for example, once, for a single patient, I brought cells from a donor from India.”explained the director of the National Register.
Encouraging registration in the donor register is a continuous approach, drawing attention to the fact that, for example, for certain minorities it is particularly important to be represented. “The less a minority has a minority, the harder it is to find a compatible donor”said Dr. Arghișan.
What is sought in the database is practically “a twin brother”, explains specialists, a 50%compatibility, for example, not sufficient.
How you become a donor and what does it mean
During the event they were invited to expose their experience, along with doctors, and patients beneficiaries of hematopoietic cell transplant (they benefited from transplantation with compatible donors from abroad), but also a donor who had the opportunity to donate for a patient from abroad.
To become a donor registered in the national register the first steps are extremely simple to take. Gabriel Răducanu, donor, explained that he found out about the register on a visit to blood donation at a specialized center. However, it can be even simpler than that, by accessing the site https://www.St register-telele-stem.ro and requesting a test kit you receive at home, you very simply collect samples from the oral cavity and send them, at no cost, to an indicated address of an analysis center. You can also come to a blood donation center, where the initial sample to be admitted to the register is a blood. One of the conditions to become a donor is to be between 18 and 45 years old and to be in full health.
After admission (the entire procedure will be explained after the first step taken) donors in the database must know that they can be requested at any time for a transplant if there is a compatible patient who needs help. However, admission to the register is not a path without return, the donors being able to change their minds, request additional information, etc.
How important it is for a patient to find out that there is a compatible donor is difficult to explain. However, the two patients who went through the experience of transplant not many years ago, with everything that implies, and who are now well.
For a patient, a compatible donor can be found, from the country or abroad, in a few tens of minutes or in months (if at the time of the first query there are no international database, but things change with the continuous completion of the registers with new donors). It is also important to know that patients have a transplant indication when their disease is in remission, so that a patient on the waiting list may at some point be admitted for transplant if changes in the evolution of the disease occur.
“We come up with the acute leukemia team and discuss each case. Some pass in front of the condition of the disease, because the patient must be in complete remission. And for the patient with acute leukemia this is the condition. He must enter into complete remission before he can receive these stem cells ”explained Dr. Daniel Coriu, emphasizing that the transplant is a consolidation of the response to already established therapy.
After transplant there are also risks, an aspect that patients know. In Romania, over 300 patients have benefited from hematopoietic stem cell transplant, but the number of procedures performed is even higher, some of the patients benefiting from two and even three times such therapy.
What are the types of cancer with transplant indication
The most common types of blood cancers with transplant indication are multiple leukemias, lymphoma and myeloma, but there are also a number of rare hematological disorders, such as myelodisplastic syndrome, medullary and myelofibrosis, explains the specialists of the Platform 2.0.
Multiple myeloma It does not manifest itself by the appearance of a node or tumor, as other types of cancers do, but rather affect the bones and disturb the production of healthy blood cells. Specifically, an abnormal group of malignancies is formed, which subsequently causes damage, such as abnormal functioning of the bone marrow, reducing the number of white blood blood cells and platelets and erosions that can cause fractures to the slightest effort.
Chronic lymphocyte leukemia (LLC) It is the most common form of excessive growth of lymphatic cells in the body, representing about 30% of leukemia cases. The global data suggests that the LLC affects between 1 and 5 people out of 10,000, and in Romania there are registered around 900 new cases annually. However, the estimates indicate that, depending on the population of Romania, we should have between 2,000 and 10,000 cases annually.
Lymphoma (or lymphatic cancer) affects the cells of the immune system represented by lymphocytes and may include both the lymph nodes and the hematopoietic organs (spleen, bone marrow).
Myelodisplastic syndrome It is the malignant hematological disease that can be transformed into acute leukemia and manifested by decreasing the number of white cells, red blood cells and platelets in the blood. Patients may have symptoms such as fatigue at small efforts, frequent infections, ecchymoses (bruises), purple (bleeding under the surface of the skin).
Myelofibrosis It is a rare hematological condition in which the bone marrow, which usually produces blood cells, becomes fibrous, thus limiting the production of blood cells. This can cause symptoms such as fatigue, weight loss, abdominal pain, bleeding.
Medullary aplasia It is a blood disease that is not a cancer, but in which the hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow are few, and the environment around them is modified, which causes the cells in the blood to be insufficient. The alotransplant of hematopoietic stem cells from the related or non -driver can cure this disease.
Not all malignant hematological diseases have an indication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, but for many of them the transplant is the only chance of healing, the specialists of the patient 2.0 also mention the transmitted statement.
