Bone Marrow – Stemcell Donation
A bone marrow transplant is a procedure to replace damaged or destroyed bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells.
Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue inside your bones. The bone marrow produces blood cells. Stem cells are immature cells in the bone marrow that give rise to all of your different blood cells.
A bone marrow transplant replaces bone marrow that is either not working properly or has been destroyed (ablated) by chemotherapy or radiation. Doctors believe that for many cancers, the donor’s white blood cells may attack any remaining cancer cells, similar to when white cells attack bacteria or viruses when fighting an infection.
Your doctor may recommend a bone marrow transplant if you have:
- Certain cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, myelodysplasia, and multiple myeloma
- A disease that affects the production of bone marrow cells, such as aplastic anemia, congenital neutropenia, severe immune system illnesses, sickle cell anemia, and thalassemia
- Had chemotherapy that destroyed your bone marrow