Is there any new development in research for APLASTIC ANEMIA? Can this disease get fully cured?

Question

The patient is a 24 year old guy suffering from moderate case of aplastic anemia.

Answer 1

Aplastic anemia is a condition where bone marrow does not produce sufficient new cells to replenish blood cells.

The term 'aplastic' means the marrow suffers from an aplasia that renders it unable to function properly. Anemia is the condition of having fewer red blood cells than normal, or fewer than needed to function properly. Typically, anemia refers to low red blood cell counts, but aplastic anemia patients have lower counts of all three blood cell types: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.


Treatment

Treating aplastic anemia involves suppression of the immune system, an effect achieved by daily medicine intake, or, in more severe cases, a bone marrow transplant, a potential cure but a risky procedure. The transplanted bone marrow replaces the failing bone marrow cells with new ones from a matching donor. The pluripotent stem cells in the bone marrow reconstitute all three blood cell lines, giving the patient a new immune system, red blood cells, and platelets. However, besides the risk of graft failure, there is also a risk that the newly created white blood cells may attack the rest of the body ("graft-versus-host disease").

Medical therapy of aplastic anemia often includes a short course of anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG or anti-lymphocyte globulin) and several months of treatment with cyclosporin to modulate the immune system. Mild chemotherapy with agents such as cyclophosphamide and vincristine may also be effective. Antibodies therapy, such as ATG, targets T-cells, which are believed to attack the bone marrow. Steroids are generally ineffective.

In the past, before the above treatments became available, patients with low leukocyte counts were often confined to a sterile room or bubble (to reduce risk of infections), as in the famed case of Ted DeVita.


Prognosis

Untreated aplastic anemia is an illness that leads to rapid death, typically within six months. If the disease is diagnosed correctly and initial treatment is begun promptly, then the survival rate for the next five to ten years is substantially improved, and many patients live well beyond that length of time.[citation needed]

While there are no reliable "cures" available for this disease, aplastic anemia can often be managed quite effectively through ongoing treatments. Some good signs are:[citation needed]

-Being otherwise healthy at the time of diagnosis
-Having a low marrow lymphocyte level
-Being successful at minimizing exposure to potentially contagious people
-Being compliant with your personal treatment and infection prevention program
-Occasionally, milder cases of the disease resolve on their own. Relapses of previously controlled disease are, however, much more common.

Well-matched bone marrow transplants from siblings have been successful in young, otherwise healthy people, with a long-term survival rate of 80%-90%. Most successful BMT recipients eventually reach a point where they consider themselves cured for all practical purposes, although they need to be compliant with follow-up care permanently.[citation needed]

Older people (who are generally too frail to undergo bone marrow transplants) and people who are unable to find a good bone marrow match have five-year survival rates of up to 75%.

Answer 2

I wish there was. I am not aware of any.

My grandfather passed from this when it converted into full blown leukemia.

:(