I must confess, happy endings are not as frequent as I would wish in high risk patients undergoing mini-allo stem cell transplants.  Here is a real-life case history.  On this lovely spring day, it is good to remind ourselves of health, renewal and hope.  I think you will like Jane’s story.

Mini-allo stem cell transplants are the only (repeat, only) therapy than can actually cure CLL at this point in time.  Here is a review of the latest think on who should get stem cell transplants. And when.

This latest expert review article of the who, when and how of stem cell transplantations validates all the points we made in our earlier three part series on the subject.

Taming the killer of graft versus host disease (GVHD) is at the very heart of improving mini-allo SCT.  We badly need breakthroughs in this area.  “Prochymal” is brand new technology for controlling GVHD that has high potential for improving safety of mini-allo protocols.

Comparing different therapy options is often a case of comparing apples and oranges. Comparing SCT versus conventional chemo is the hardest of all. Experts from Barcelona take a stab at it.

Here is the latest info on stem cell transplants – what is involved, what to expect, risks versus rewards, the whole enchilada.

FCR is a very powerful chemo-immunotherapy combination that yields high percentage of “CR” (complete responses).  But it has become clear that majority of patients will relapse, sooner or later.  How do “salvage” therapy options stack up for patients relapsing after FCR remission?

Stem cell transplants using umbilical cord blood as the source of stem cells can make the difference between life and death.  Many CLL patients cannot find suitably matched adult donors.  For these folks cord blood is a precious resource.