A Mexican way to cope with stem cell grafting.

The widespread practice of stem cell grafting faces several problems in the world, derived mainly from the high costs of the procedure when conducted using traditional methods. In order to cope with this problem, we have implemented in México procedures to make stem cell grafting, both autologous and allogeneic, more affordable to patients living in our country and in other developing countries. The simplification of these procedures which have been done in our country are described; they have resulted in and increased number of patients both autografted and allografted in México. In the case of autografts, the changes have relied on the use of non-frozen autologous peripheral blood stem cells and short conditioning schedules delivered as outpatients, whereas in the case of allografts, changes have relied mainly in conducting the allografts fully on an outpatient basis and employing reduced-intensity conditioning preparative schedules.