ARTICLE FEATURES . Bone Marrow Transplant
Bone Marrow Transplant The best choice for leukemia patients
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one marrow transplant is considered the only option to treat blood diseases when other approved treatments fail. These diseases include common blood cancers, such as acute and chronic leukemia, lymphoma, acute lymphocytic leukemia, bone and soft tissue tumors (sarcoma), brain tumors, bone marrow failure syndromes, thalassemia, aplastic anemia, and sickle cell anemia. Recovery from a bone marrow transplant takes a long time. Bone marrow transplant is a medical procedure that replaces your damaged bone marrow cells with healthy cells. The replacement cells can either come from your own body or from a donor who is often a family member, provided that the match between the patient and the donor is 100% and that the latter is in good health. Bone marrow is the soft, spongy tissue inside bones that helps them produce and store most of the body’s blood cells and the cells
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BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT CAN ALSO BE PERFORMED TO TREAT NON-CANCEROUS DISEASES, SUCH AS APLASTIC ANEMIA AND THALASSEMIA MAJOR.
that make up the immune system. Before the transplant process, the patient undergoes chemotherapy or radiotherapy to destroy the bone marrow cells, which are later replaced. Bone marrow transplant can also be performed to reconstitute a new immune system that fights existing or remaining leukemia or other cancers that are not killed by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. In some cases, chemotherapy and radiotherapy may not cure the condition, even after many sessions. The doctor has to resort then to the bone marrow transplant to eradicate malignant diseases, such as leukemia. Bone marrow transplant can also be performed to treat non-cancerous diseases, such as aplastic anemia and thalassemia major. The bone marrow contains stem cells that mature into three types of blood cells: red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body, white blood cells that help fight infections, and platelets that form clots to prevent excessive bleeding. Tissue
