What is Bone Marrow?
A part of bones called “bone marrow” create blood cells. Marrow is the soft, spongy tissue inside your bones. Bone marrow produces blood cells called “hematopoietic” stem cells. These cells will develop into many different kinds of cells. They can turn into more bone marrow cells. Or they can turn into any type of blood cell.
Certain cancers and different types of diseases keep hematopoietic stem cells from developing normally. If they’re not normal, neither are the blood cells that they make. A stem cell transplant provides you new stem cells. The new stem cells can make new, healthy blood cells. It creates the following parts of the blood.
- Red Blood Cells: which carry oxygen and nutrients throughout the body.
- White Blood Cells: which fight infection.
- Platelets: which are responsible for the formation of clots.
What is a Bone Marrow Transplant?
Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) is a special therapy for patients with certain cancers or other diseases. A Bone marrow transplant involves taking cells that are normally found in the bone marrow (stem cells), filtering those cells, and giving them back either to the donor (patient) or to another person. The goal of BMT is to transfuse healthy bone marrow cells into a person after his or her own unhealthy bone marrow has been treated to kill the abnormal cells.
A bone marrow transplant, also called a stem cell transplant, is a treatment for some types of cancer. For example, you might have one if you have leukemia, multiple myeloma, or some types of lymphoma. Doctors also treat some blood diseases with stem cell transplants.
What Diseases can be treated by Bone Marrow Transplant?
A bone marrow transplant, also called a blood stem cell transplant or BMT, can treat many diseases. For some diseases, BMT is the only potential cure. There are over 70 diseases that can be treated by BMT. Some of them are listed here.
Patients undergo transplant for a wide variety of malignant and non-malignant conditions including:
Malignant conditions
Hematologic Malignancies
- Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
- Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
- Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)
- Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
- Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Solid Tumors
- Neuroblastoma
- Brain tumors
- Ewing sarcoma
- Rhabdomyosarcoma
Non-Malignant Conditions
Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes
- Aplastic anemia
- Fanconi Anemia
Hemoglobinopathies
- Sickle cell anemia
- Thalassemia
Primary Immune Deficiencies
- Severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID)
- Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
- Chronic Granulomatous Disease
- Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis
- Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis