Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List
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Why is it necessary? of Bone marrow donation
Bone marrow transplants are necessary when the bone marrow becomes so diseased or damaged that it does not function properly. This may be due to a disease such as leukaemia (cancer of the bone marrow cells), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or a related cancer of the blood.
Other diseases that may require a bone marrow transplant include:
- rare genetic diseases such as osteopetrosis (when normal bone marrow cavities do not develop);
- immune-deficiency illnesses such as aplastic anaemia, which causes the immune system to stop working properly, or
- any other disease that affects the blood.
Bone marrow transplants may also be necessary following certain treatments such as chemotherapy (anti-cancer drugs) and radiotherapy, which tend to damage healthy stem cells at the same time as destroying cancer cells.
