Stem cell transplants for non Hodgkin lymphoma : Cancer Research …

Your stem cells may be collected after you have had a course of chemotherapy, because some of the stem cells move out of the bone marrow and into the blood at this time.

You often need to have cells collected for 2, or sometimes 3, days in a row to get enough. Collecting the stem cells takes 3 or 4 hours each time. You lie down on a couch. A drip is put into each of your arms and attached to a machine. Your blood passes out of one drip, through the machine and back into your body through the other drip. The machine filters the stem cells out of your blood.

If you don't have enough stem cells, you may need to have injections of a type of drug called G-CSF. If stem cells are being collected from a donor, your donor will need to have G-CSF. It makes stem cells spill out from the bone marrow and into the blood. You have the injections for up to 10 days. You have blood tests to check the level of stem cells in your bloodstream. When there are enough, your stem cells are collected.

The stem cells are frozen until you are ready to have them back. This will be after all your high dose chemotherapy is finished.

There is more information about stem cell transplants in the transplants section.

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Stem cell transplants for non Hodgkin lymphoma : Cancer Research ...