[louiseclark93Participant]

Hi I am new to this, my uncle is 61 years old and has been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. He was told nearer the beginning that he would be a suitable candidate for Stem Cell treatment. However, he was yesterday told that he would not be able to receive this in the foreseeable future as the Thalidomide he was getting has affected his heart and he is now not a suitable candidate for this treatment. I have looked into stem cell donation and this looks to be even more high risk. He was told at the meeting that they would be giving him EPOCH which I have looked up and have not found anything that clearly explains the outcome of using this. If anyone could shed a bit of light on the topic for me I would greatly appreciate it as many of you will know, when you start looking online for an answer, much of the time the results just make you feel worse.

Louise

• This topic was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by  louiseclark93.

[ellenModerator]

Dear Louise

I am sorry no one has yet responded to your post; it may be that none of the other forum users have the same or similar experience to that of your uncle. I hope you don’t mind me replying. My name is Ellen and I am one of the Myeloma Information Specialists at Myeloma UK.

There are a number of factors to consider when deciding whether a patient is suitable for a stem cell transplant. Generally speaking, patients have to be in relatively good health, over and above their myeloma. For example, any heart or lung issues would be taken very seriously. This is primarily because the possible benefits are often outweighed by the potential risks to less fit (and older) patients. It may be that if your uncle’s heart problems improve then his doctor might consider him for a transplant in the future. This would actually be a very reasonable question for your uncle to ask his haematologist.

I have not heard of the treatment with the acronym EPOCH, I wonder if you perhaps mean ESHAP, a combination of chemotherapy drugs which are given intravenously (into the vein). ESHAP is an acronym for the drugs etoposide, methylprednisolone, cytarabine & cisplatin. It is not commonly used as it can be tough to tolerate so it is generally only given for one or two cycles.

I hope this has been of some help but if you have any further questions, or would like to talk things through, please feel free to call the Myeloma Infoline on 0800 980 3332, alternately you can email directly to askthenurse@myeloma.org.uk and I or one of my colleagues can clarify things for you further.

With best wishes

Ellen

 

 

 

 

 

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