General Considerations in the Treatment of Aplastic Anemia
Many years ago, aplastic anemia was considered a fatal disease unless the patient recovered without treatment (spontaneously). Now that we understand this is an immune disease, treatments have been devised that have an 80% to 90% success rate. There are long-term side effects, such as graft-versus-host disease for those who receive stem cell transplants, but this affects only a minority of people.
The other major side effect is that a small number of people with aplastic anemia will develop leukemia or other cancers after several years. However, it isn?t clear that this is always caused by the treatment. It may be caused by a problem with the blood cells themselves.
Because the treatment of aplastic anemia is so specialized, treatment it may best be done at a major medical center where they have experience with this disease. This is particularly true for stem cell transplants.
Sometimes the first treatment isn’t successful and will need to be repeated. Often the second treatment will be effective, even if the first wasn’t. Also, the treatment may be only partially effective, and the blood counts may not return to normal. In this situation, many people can still lead a normal life and not need treatment. Their blood counts, although not normal, will be high enough for a normal life.
Sometimes, none of the treatments are successful. In this case a person with aplastic anemia might want to consider taking part in a clinical trial, that is, a study of a new therapy that hasn’t yet been proven successful.