Myelofibrosis is a rare disease (the World Health Organization estimates its occurrence rate at 2.5 people per 100,000); the only cure is a transplant of the bone marrow from a well-matched donor. Any other treatments are designed to deal with the symptoms, which are pretty horrendous; they range from transfusion dependence, to fevers, to splenomegaly, to a compromised immune system.
A bone marrow transplant is no walk in the park: there is a 70% 5 year mortality rate; many patients suffer greatly during the treatment. There is somewhere around a 30-50% one year mortality rate, depending on overall health of the patient, the age of the patient, the type of chemotherapy used in the conditioning phase, and the type of donor.
Rock, meet hard place. That wet sound you hear is the myelofibrosis patient being squished between the two.
A bone marrow transplant is no walk in the park: there is a 70% 5 year mortality rate; many patients suffer greatly during the treatment. There is somewhere around a 30-50% one year mortality rate, depending on overall health of the patient, the age of the patient, the type of chemotherapy used in the conditioning phase, and the type of donor.
Rock, meet hard place. That wet sound you hear is the myelofibrosis patient being squished between the two.
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If you are interested in learning a bit more about myelofibrosis, start with the following entries:
http://www.terminalreason.com/2016/01/black-holes.html
If you are looking for more factual information on myelofibrosis, page through posts with the label "Basics:"
http://www.terminalreason.com/search/label/basics
