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Anyone else experienced 'FMC 50' conditioning?
Hi I am an AML patient and am expecting a date for an allogenic stem cell transplant at some point in the next few weeks. I have completed one cycle of induction chemotherapy - 'DA' - following which a bone marrow biopsy showed remission - and one cycle of high dose cytarabine chemo to consolidate. I have been told that it is likely that the pre transplant conditioning will be with Fludarabine, Mephalam and Campath and that this will be administered as an in patient over 4 days. Can anyone tell me what I can expect and how I might feel as a result of this treatment?
Thanks Gail
Thanks Gail
Comments
I had those 3 drugs as conditioning. I had it as an outpatient so it wasn't so bad for me. Bad, but short term, sickness on Melphalan, sleepiness with Campath and to be honest I can't remember any effects of fludarabine. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting but I think I was pretty lucky with the transplant itself.
Wishing you all the very best,
Greg
Thanks for posting, I am the lead nurse in the patient services team. Fludarabine, campath and melphalan is the standard conditioning for a reduced intensity allograft. Greg is correct, fludarabine is usually well tolerated, campath can cause some reactions with the first dose but you will be given medications that will help you with this. Melphalan is the strongest chemo out of the three and can cause nausea and will affect your bone marrow. To be honest the experience of having this chemotherapy regimen compared with DA will not be too different. The inpatient stay will be about the same, you can expect all the normal side effects like loss of appetite, diarrhoea, and fatigue and obviously your blood counts will fall. The administration of the stem cells is also very straightforward and similar to giving a bag of platelets. The main difference will be that the time it takes you to recover, after DA it normally takes a couple of weeks from discharge to begin to feel better but after a transplant it will take several months. You will not feel unwell for all this time but the symptoms of fatigue, loss of appetite can come and go and you might develop GvHD. The best advice is to take it one stage at a time so right now focus on the inpatient part. You can get more information about recovery after a transplant from our booklet the Next Seven Steps here https://www.anthonynolan.org/patients-and-families/order-or-download-publications
Keep in touch with your progress.
BW
Hayley
I was admtted to the Christie 1st Feb this year and had FMC 30 prior to my transplant 8th Feb. I don't know what the difference between FMC50 and 30 is but the drugs are the same.
I had Fludarabine on days 1 - 5 , Melphalan on day 6 and Campath on day 7.
The only one I had a slight reaction to was Campath at the very end but nothing major and was soon sorted with a dose of antihistimine.
Be prepared to suck on ice pops before and during the Melphalan. I wasn't over keen on the thought of ice pops in February but it's to prevent a sore mouth and luckily for me it worked. Melphalan usually causes diarrhoea too but again I was fortunate in dodging that too.
Hope this helps a little.
Bernie x
Everything's going really well thanks. I had MDS and am in remission. I'm tired and achy but nothing out of the ordinary.
Hope everything is going to plan for you.
Best Wishes
Bernie