A bone marrow transplant, a stem cell transplant, or a hematopoietic stem cell transplant is a medical procedure that replaces diseased bone marrow with healthy blood cells. Bone marrow transplant is recommended for patients suffering from various types of blood cancer like leukaemia, myeloma, and lymphoma, besides other blood and diseases of the immune system. Bone marrow transplant is of two types:
Blood cells collected from the patient
Blood cells collected from the donor
Bone marrow transplants help treat various cancerous and non-cancerous conditions, including:
Bone marrow transplant helps restore the bone marrow damaged due to high doses of chemotherapy and radiation in cancer patients. Infusing bone marrow triggers new stem cells that can kill malignant cells directly
A transplant must undergo a procedure called Apheresis if it uses the patient’s stem cells. Under this, the patient will receive injections for a few days to trigger stem cell production. The blood is then collected from the vein and circulated through a machine to separate stem cells.
The stem cells are then collected and frozen for transplant. The blood remaining in the machine is returned to the body.