Over the next several days
[object Object] 13
Over the next several days
Nia is 13
Nia gets chemotherapy. It makes her throw up. She does not like how this medicine makes her hair fall out, even though she knows it will grow back.
You will get chemotherapy every day for about 1 week.
This is sometimes called the “conditioning regimen” or the “preparative regimen” or “prep.”
- The medicine is given to you through a tube that puts it directly into your blood stream.
- You will be awake when you get this medicine.
- Your doctors will decide how much you need and how many times each day you will get the medicine.
Chemotherapy can cause problems (side effects).
Here are common side effects that can last a few weeks:
- Hair Loss. Your hair will start to grow back in a few weeks, but it might look a little different.
- Stomach problems. Many people vomit (throw up) and have diarrhea (watery poop). You can also have nausea (feeling sick in your stomach) and pain in your belly. You will get medicine to help control this. Some people feel like they do not want to eat anything.
- Pain.
- Headaches.
- Fevers.
- Mouth sores (painful spots in your mouth). If it becomes hard for you to eat, your doctor can provide nutrition to your body through a tube.
Other side effects can last longer:
- For about 6 months, you can get very sick from germs.
- You might not be able to have children, because chemotherapy can damage eggs and sperm. Talk to your doctor about freezing eggs or sperm cells before chemotherapy.
Some people have gotten cancer after chemotherapy, but it is not common.
- A few people have developed leukemia (a type of blood cancer) after gene therapy. This could be due to the chemotherapy.
- Your doctor can talk to you about the latest information.
Chemotherapy helps gene therapy work.
Before genetically-changed stem cells are put into your body, you need myeloablative (high dose) chemotherapy.
- Your unchanged blood-making stem cells take up space. These are the cells with the wrong instructions. They make sickle cells.
- Chemotherapy kills your unchanged blood-making stem cells to stop them from making sickle cells.
- This makes room in your body for the genetically-changed stem cells.
- Chemotherapy gives you the best chance of the gene therapy working.
Chemotherapy kills any cells that your body makes over and over again.
- It can be used to kill cancer cells in people with cancer.
- It also kills blood-making stems cells.
- It kills egg cells and sperm cells.
- It also kills the cell that make up the moist, inner lining of some organs and body cavities, such as the mouth, stomach, and gut (intestines).
- It also kills hair cells. This is why your hair falls out. The cells that make your hair do not die, so your body can grow hair again after a few weeks.
After chemotherapy, you can get sick.
When chemotherapy kills your blood-making stem cells, your body cannot make white blood cells (immune system cells).
- The immune system is what protects you from germs.
- Without white blood cells (immune system cells) your body cannot fight germs.
- After chemotherapy you can get very sick, because you are immunosuppressed (unable to fight germ) for about 6 months.
- After a few months, your genetically-changed stem cells have made enough new white blood cells for you to fight germs like you did before chemotherapy.
- After 6 months, you may need to get vaccinated again for several germs, even if you had gotten those vaccines as a child. Doctors are still learning about vaccinations after gene therapy.
Two medicines used for chemotherapy are Busulfan (most commonly used currently) and Melphalan.