What is the difference between autologous and allogeneic

The donor cells will not be recognized as a foreign entity, because they come from the same person. Similarly, the patient is unlikely to reject the transplanted cells, because they are their own. However, in some cases, contamination or other factors may make the cells unsafe and the body will attack them. Overall, however, autologous stem cell transplants are safer than allogeneic stem cell transplants. First, they prevent the need to find a donor, and second, they save valuable time.

They also reduce the probability of side effects. In this case, the risk of re-transmitting it into the patient through significant. If a patient has recovered from cancer through surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, then re-administering their cells back to them may pose an unacceptable hazard.

In this case, donor cells are a better choice. The infographic below depicts how stem cell transplants work, including the differences between allogeneic and autologous transplants. Both kinds of stem cell transplantations are a common treatment option for cancers such as leukemia , lymphoma , and multiple myeloma.

In this procedure, stem cells are collected from the patient and frozen in liquid nitrogen before transplant conditioning.

Stem cells are intrinsically normal, and they are collected to allow blood cell recovery after the administration of high dose therapy that would otherwise irreversibly damage them.

The stem cell donor may be related to the patient, or they may be an unrelated volunteer found through a donor registry search such as the National Marrow Donor Program. Learn more about hematologic oncology.

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Donate to Gateway for Cancer Research Make a difference in the fight against cancer by donating to cancer research. Donate now. Gateway for Cancer Research is a c 3 non-profit organization. Allogeneic therapies are manufactured in large batches from unrelated donor tissues such as bone marrow whereas autologous therapies are manufactured as a single lot from the patient being treated. For some autologous therapies, the cells from the patient are processed on site at the clinic or hospital.