I hear what you are saying but the end goal was always a SCT for me and my oncology Dr’s (they told me I was the perfect candidate as no damage to vital organs) hence why not just do it initially! It’s ended up costing more because of all the Chemotherapy's costs and now SCT cost as well 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks Mark, I look forward to hearing the answer.

Well you have an excellent point. This Friday I have my monthly maintenance chemo and will ask my doctor!

I’m not sure this will answer your question since you are in South Africa but here in the states Medicare will not pay the exorbitant amount for the ASCT unless you get induction chemo therapy first. If you can achieve remission quickly from 16 weeks of infusions then you may not need the bone marrow transplant.

When my doctor told me I was not in remission he said I not only needed an ASCT but I needed two!
Known as a tandem or back-to-back transplant. Medicare balked and said, “no, we are not going to pay for that!” and they postponed the second until the next calendar year.

But I lucked out by going into remission after the first transplant so it was a moot point.

My hunch is if you ask your provider (who pays the bills) or your oncology team if you could bypass induction and go straight to transplant they will say, “are you going to pay for it out of your own pocket?”

It is what it is because this is the way the system works. If you have enough money you can buck the system. And you better have piles!

This doesn’t answer my question?