Food safety

During and after stem cell transplant and CAR-T therapy, patients are at greater risk of infection from bacteria of fungus in food. This is for the following reasons:

• The white blood cells (neutrophils) that would usually fight food poisoning bacteria are at a low level. This is called neutropenia.
• The gut lining which acts as a barrier between bacteria and the bloodstream is damaged by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This makes it easier for bacteria to cross into the blood stream.

Following haematopoietic stem cell transplant and CAR-T therapy, patients are encouraged to continue to follow food safety advice and avoid a few ‘high risk’ foods. You will be advised of this when you are admitted for transplant/CAR-T therapy.

Patients should follow this advice for the first 100 days (3months) post-transplant/post CAR-T. If you are undergoing allogeneic or haplo-identical transplant, you should continue to follow this advice until you stop your immunosuppressive therapy e.g. ciclosporin.

On admission you will be provided with written information on food safety.