[Sandy in Silicon Valley]

Hi, Sherry (and kudos, Maryann, for posting such a detailed, informative description in addition to your personal experience with the ordeal!) -

Stem cell transplants were being used as a "last resort" for Stage IV bc patients back in the 1990's. Then some meta analysis of data collected in a number of studies indicated that more Stage IV patients actually died, or became very ill, from the treatments, than those who did not undergo stem cell transplant.

Still, there are some diehard adherents who are still recommending this very difficult and risky treatment, and there are patients who've undergone the procedure, and have lived many years since, and think that the procedure saved them and has been keeping them alive. So it's definitely a mixed bag.

I had a good friend back in the mid-1990's, who'd managed to recover from several recurrences - to her liver, lungs, bones, lymph system, but she finally exhausted all of the then-approved chemo regimens. She was rejected by a few clinical trials, and finally arranged to have a stem cell transplant. Besides that she was quarantined for more than a month, couldn't go out after that - she also became weaker and weaker, when she should have gotten better, and finally succumbed. Whether her death was due to the stem cell transplant, the cummulative effects of all the treatments she'd had before and/or her extensive bc mets, or her overall weakened condition, no one seemed to know. But her last few months of life were really miserable.

This topic has been discussed several times on the bcmets.org listserv - if anyone's interested in exploring it further, past posts are in the archives there, and can be searched.

(((hugs)))
Sandy in Silicon Valley