"Patients with SLE whose immunosuppressive treatments fail to achieve a good response might have another option with autologous non-myeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT)."
Research Professors from Northwestern University presented results of their study on 50 patients (with serious SLE symptoms) who underwent stem cell transplantation with their own mobilized peripheral blood stem cells at the 2006 Blood and Marrow Transplantation Tandem Meetings (ASBMT). During the study, none of the 48 patients showed any treatment related mortality and disease free survival post transplant was 50%. As a testament to its effectiveness in reducing symptoms, patients who required oxygen before the therapy did not require it after the transplant.
The interesting part is, the treatment strategy resets the immune system in a safe manner where not all the existing stem cells of the patient is removed. This means that the transplantation of autologous (patient's own) stem cells results in a shorter period of neutropenia (lack of your body's defence cells) and thus the patient would not be as susceptible to infection, leading to a faster recovery.
Thus by storing their own stem cells earlier in their lifetime, a stem cell transplant procedure could buy them more time or turn back the clock even further. With this in mind, perhaps patients with SLE may wish to bank their stem cells early before any symptoms show up.
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