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Bone marrow transplant

Bone marrow is the soft, jelly-like tissue that is found in the hollow centre of all large bones.

Bone marrow contains stem cells. Stem cells produce red blood cells that carry oxygen around the body, white blood cells that fight infection, and platelets that help stop bleeding.

All of these blood cells are produced by the stem cells and released into the blood stream through the veins and thin tissue surrounding the bone. Without the bone marrow and stem cells, blood cannot be produced and we cannot survive.

If you have an illness or condition that affects your bone marrow (such as leukaemia), or requires treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, your bone marrow may be damaged. This means that you may need a bone marrow transplant. During a transplant, healthy bone marrow will be introduced into your blood stream. If the transplant is successful, the new bone marrow will begin making healthy blood cells and you will start to get better.

Autologous transplant: Healthy bone marrow may be taken from your body before you have chemotherapy or radiotherapy (this is called ‘bone marrow harvest’) and put back into your body when your treatment is complete. This is sometimes called an autologous transplant, or ‘high-dose treatment and stem cell support’. Sometimes the bone marrow might be cleaned or ‘purged’ of cancer cells before it is put back.

Allogenic transplant: Alternatively, you may have a transplant of bone marrow from a donor; this is called an allogenic transplant.

Stem cell transplant: It is increasingly more common for stem cells to be collected for transplant instead of the whole bone marrow. This is called a stem cell transplant. Stem cell transplants (also known as PBSC) are similar to bone marrow transplants but an anaesthetic is not necessary to collect the cells and the blood counts usually recover quicker.

• Why is it necessary?
• How does it work?
• How is it performed?
• Who can use it?
• Risks
• Recovery

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