Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List
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Why is it necessary? of Bone marrow transplant
Bone marrow transplants are necessary when the bone marrow becomes diseased or damaged so that it does not function properly. This may be due to a disease such as leukaemia, 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 where the immune system does not function properly, such as aplastic anaemia (where the bone marrow stops making enough blood cells); 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 tends to damage healthy stem cells at the same time as it destroys the cancer cells.
