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People who have undergone a stem cell transplant need to be assessed regularly by their physicians. The treatment team will closely monitor allogeneic transplant patients for signs of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), and will monitor patients who have received either allogeneic or autologous transplants for immune system recovery, late complications arising from the agents used in the cytoreductive regimen, and any recurrence of cancer.
Physical Challenges
Patients may experience a range of physical symptoms while recovering from a marrow or stem cell transplant. These can include fatigue and weakness, distorted taste sensations, lingering nausea and diarrhea, hair loss or other changes in appearance, and loss of muscle tone. Because their immune systems may not recover fully for some time, they will at risk for infections and colds.
In some patients, cancer may recur following transplantation if the high-dose chemotherapy and radiation given before the transplant did not eliminate all the malignant cells, or if the autologous stem cells harvested before the cytotoxic therapy contained some cancer cells. In an allogeneic transplant, the graft-versus-leukemia process may not always protect the patient from relapse, especially if he or she had relapsed or advanced disease at the time of transplantation. When a patient's cancer recurs, physicians may shift their treatment strategy to a next-line therapy. In rare instances, patients may develop a secondary cancer or condition such as a myelodysplastic syndrome as a result of the high-dose treatment.
