Autologous Stem Cell Transplant

My brother (33) was diagnosed with AML over xmas. He finished round 1 of chemo and is now in remission. There is disagreement between his doctor and another doctor at UCSF over how he should continue with his treatment.

His doctor wants to do the normal 4-round consolidation therapy. Another doctor at UCSF suggests getting an Autologous Stem Cell Transplant. Is anyone familiar with this, personally?

Any information is helpful. Thank you!

good question.  I think it depends on a couple things.  One is if he has a good match for a donor.  With a poor match its not worth the side effects of the transplant.  Another depends upon his cytogenetics.  In patients with the 8:21 translocation their outcome is pretty good with chemo so generally SCT are held until relapse or second remission.  In cases of poor cytogenetics (deletions) a SCT may be in order at first remission as these patients are more likely to relapse.

Thank you for your response. 

 Autologous Stem Cell Transplant is a new procedure where they use the patient's own stem cells, rather than those of a donor.  So there wouldn't be any matching problems. 

 However, the treatment is controversial for patients who respond to chemo.  Why take the higher risk of a stem cell transplant when patient responds to chemo?  The advantage of the Autologous Transplant is that, if succesful, it has higher chances of long-term survival and lower chances of remission. 

 As far as I know only UCSF does this operation, which is a reason for worry.  All other major treatment centers recommend continuing with chemo, but the doctors at UCSF insist that my brother receive a transplant. 

does he not have a good donor match?  The allogeneic transplants have  better survival numbers than the autologous.  More problems with graft vs host ,but better survival.  Still it mostly depends on his cytogenetics.  Do you have any of that info?