Hi,
I am 6 months post allogenic stem cell transplant. I have been getting stronger & feel almost back to normal. After the usual checks ups my bone marrow is clear and in remission. However I have just been told that my T cell count is on the low side 40ish%. It did creep up to 60% but fell back down.
I now need to have a T cell infusion.
I am really worried about this. Does this affect my recovery or remission in any way?
Also what side effects will I have? Am I expected to have any GVHD?
Hi Annie_19,
Thanks for getting in touch and welcome to our online community. My name is Adrienne and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurses at Macmillan.
I see you have joined our AML forum. I really hope you are finding it supportive and helpful.
It’s great to hear that you are feeling stronger and almost back to normal, following your transplant. From what you have told us it sounds like you will be having an infusion of donor lymphocytes, which are T-Cells.
After a stem cell transplant, your T cell donor chimerism will be monitored regularly. This means how much of your bone marrow is from your donor and should be as close to 100% as possible.
As yours has dropped, a transfusion of T-Cells, also known as a donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) is given to cause an immune response which aims to push chimerism back up to an acceptable level.
As the aim is also to prevent relapse, it should in fact promote your remission by boosting the number of donor cells in your bone marrow.
The main side-effect from DLI is GvHD ,however, this is what you want as it means the infusion has caused an immune response, also causing a graft versus leukaemia effect. The number of cells in the DLI are small to start off with and increased over weeks to ensure they don’t cause too much of a reaction or GVHD.
It’s important to know that your transplant consultant will go over all of the possible side-effects when they consent you for the T Cell infusion. We can only talk in general terms, but your
consultant will discuss any side-effects specific to you, and you own risk of GVHD.
I really do hope this was helpful and wish you all the best with your recovery.
Take care,
Adrienne (Cancer Information Nurse Specialist)
You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.
Our ref: AM/JL
