Chemotherapy can restore some patients to health, but there are still some patients who cannot be cured by chemotherapy alone. At this time, an "extreme" treatment may be adopted: allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Simply put, it is to "empty" (set fire to) the bone marrow with high-dose rays and drugs, and then import exogenous hematopoietic stem cells. Exogenous healthy stem cells grow in patients, differentiate into various blood cells for the body to use, and gradually establish a new immune system to kill the remaining leukemia cells, so that patients can fully recover.
So, what is the source of exogenous hematopoietic stem cells (seeds)? There are two main sources: one is to "borrow" from relatives, and the other is to ask for charitable donations from the society. Can all healthy people become donors? Unfortunately, the answer is no, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation involves a complex concept: HLA (human leukocyte antigen) matching.
In short, the higher the HLA matching between donor and recipient, the greater the chance of successful transplantation and the smaller the chance of rejection after transplantation. For each sibling who is the same as the patient, the probability of HLA complete matching is1/4; For strangers without any blood relationship, the probability of HLA matching is only 1/65438+ million; As for the HLA matching of parents and children, it is impossible to match completely, and it is only possible to be an HLA semi-matching donor.
The development of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation technology saved the lives of patients with hematological diseases in Qian Qian, but the shortage of donor sources greatly limited the clinical application of this technology. Hematopoietic stem cell banks are booming in the world, and more and more caring people are going to register, which provides more possibilities for the treatment of strange patients and makes patients without relatives see the dawn.