Refractory HL yes or no to stem cell

Hi Jennifersdaughtet and welcome to the Macmillan Online Community, the community that we never thought we would have to sign up for.

There is a specific forum dealing with Stem Cell Transplants for Blood Cancers (Link) I suggest you join this group and put out your question. I have had two Allogenic SCT for Primary Continuous T Cell Lymphoma and currently am in remission. But have little information with regards to the use of Immunotherapy agents SCT (apart from what I can research).

There is also a forum for Hodgkin Lymphoma (Link) and it may be worth joining and posting the same question. These forums have some wonderful people with lots of life experience and I am sure someone can give you some help.

I have a question. Why must you have a stem cell transplant. It's a big decision. Now with immunotherapy why must we go the path of transplant. I know there is not enough data to say if there is no need for transplant along the way. My daughter is so confused. She is going to freeze her stem cells but is not sure to take that plunge towards transplant. Should she do it now while she is young and somewhat healthy ? Or should she take a gamble and wait it out while receiving immunotherapy ? I need opinions

Hi Jennifer,

I'm 29, had refractory HL, I had two types of chemo and then immunotherapy which didn't work! My fourth chemo put me in remission and I'm just home from hospital after stem cell transplant. I was in hospital for 3 weeks (half the time expected) it's tough but it's worth it.

Read my blog for more details, it might help xx

Thanks for this Stacey (Stacey8892)....... are you home yet?...... you are doing great. Hi Jennifer (Jennifersdaughtet) could I ask, are you in the UK?

We are in us New York and that is great to hear you are doing well. I know it's tough but my daughter just feels so good and she knows that she will be so sick in the hospital getting stem cell transplant - she wrote down pros and cons and she has done good points. She will collect her stem cells either way so if relapse she can still do auto but of course she would have to get into remission again. The doctors have no wrong or right answer they say immunotherapy doesn't have enough data for them to say that u wouldn't need a rescue with transplant so therefore it's a gamble