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Sickle Cell Disease – Relief at last?
Bone-Marrow Transplant
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Sickle Cell Disease – Relief at last? Bone-Marrow Transplant
by George Shiflet
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The one currently used cure, which does not employ CRISPR technology, involves a bone marrow transplant, likely requiring a closely matched donor, and is usually for patients under the age 16 with a history of severe complications. For most bone marrow transplants, chemotherapy is used to destroy the defective cells in the patient’s bone marrow. For a young patient, that would mean killing a variety of fast-growing cells, like reproductive cells, resulting in infertility. Patients still wishing to proceed with the transplant can bank their sperm or freeze their eggs and use them later for in vitro fertilization.