How much can one treatment cost?
On average in 2000-01 the estimated cost for an individual case of leukaemia was $51,000. It came in first being the most expensive cancer to treat in Australia. The cost of leukaemia treatments can be overwhelming.
In the United States, one round of chemotherapy approximately costs $150,000 while a bone marrow transplant might cost $250,000 or more. Additional costs, including specialists, medication, hospitalization or other therapies add more to the final bill. India offers bone marrow transplants for up to $25,000, while medical patients in Singapore may receive treatments that range from about $70,000 to $100,000.
What are the side effects of the treatments?
There are many different types of Leukaemia which means that there has to be many different types of treatments. Some treatments are very effective and have little to moderate side effects. However there are some more severe side effects depending on the patient and the treatment. If it’s bad then some side effects can be vomiting, the immune system can collapse, hair loss, diarrhea and the lining of the intestines turn to slush. Specifically from Chemotherapy you can become very weak and tired, bruise or bleed easily complete hair loss although the hair will grow back, mouth and lip sores, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, poor appetite, swelling, being bloated, becoming infertile or the fertility may be affected. From biological therapy there may be swelling, rashes, anaemia or flu like symptoms. In radiation therapy there may be extreme tiredness and although they need a lot of rest doctors suggest they stay as active as possible, skin become red, tender, and dry in the treated areas. If patients are getting stem cell transplant they may get an infection, bleed and other side effects due to the large amount of chemotherapy and radiation they receive. In some cases the patient may get GVHD (graft versus host disease). Most often the Liver, skin, or digestive system is affected. GVHD can be very mild or very severe and it can occur after the transplant ever years after.
Patients need to keep a good diet through treatment, eating enough calories to remain a good weight and having enough protein to keep up their strength. Good nutrition usually helps the patients feel better and have more energy. However treatment can have a severe effect on a patient’s diet because the patient usually will not have an appetite or will feel nausea or being vomiting.
What is a Bone Marrow Transplant?
A bone marrow transplant is when stem cells are taken from the bone marrow and filtered, then put back into the person or into someone else meaning that the person who had the bone marrow taken out is now a bone marrow transplant donor. If you are a donor you usually have to prepare a few days before starting with injections that cause stem cells to go into the blood, then they take the stem cells and then it is returned back to the donor in the other arm. They then have to go into the operating room and then another needle will be stuck into the hip/breastbone and the bone marrow will be taken out. The donor may feel some pain once they have woken up in the spots where the needle was inserted.
There are two types of bone marrow, autologous bone marrow transplant and allogenic bone marrow transplant. Austologous bone marrow transplant is when the donor is the person him/herself; Austologous bone marrow transplant is when the donor is someone else who has the same genetic type of tissue.
