Like if you have sickle cell or blood cancer or things can you not just like use a dialysis machine to take out your sick blood and do new clean blood?
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This is already kind of what we do. Many people with sickle cell take regular pain meds, and regular blood transfusions.
The problem is, blood cells actually only last 120 days. When you donate blood you’re required to wait at least 8 weeks before donating again so that your blood replenishes, so in people whose blood cell creation has an issue, basically every 8 weeks you’re at square one.
With cancer more commonly the white blood cells are the issue, which are immune system defender cells. with sickle cell, the red blood cells that carry oxygen, nutrients, and wastes, are now sickle shaped instead of discs. This makes them inefficient for their purpose and they get stuck more easily leading to blood clots, meaning they have increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and DVT.
Blood cancer can basically only be solved by a bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow makes blood, so that’s the root cause. We first destroy the recipient’s bone marrow with radiation. And then we keep them in a clean room. No bone marrow means no white blood cells, without those your body can’t fight any kind of infection at all, it’s basically the same fate people with AIDS have, but temporary. Now with someone who has similar enough healthy bone marrow, we take a sample and place it into the recipient’s body. From there the bone marrow will regrow and the problem is solved!
The downside is this only happens 68% of the time if the donor and recipient are related, and 50% or less if they’re not.
So for cancer patients who basically have no other option the risk is many times worth it.
Sickle cell however isn’t necessarily deadly, you have increased risk to deadly events, and you have pain wherever blood flows… which is everywhere, but it’s not deadly so transfusions are the way to go along with supportive medications to reduce pain. They can however also undergo a bone marrow transplants with the same risks and success rates, just it’s solving a different issue
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