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Bone marrow transplant

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can damage healthy cells as well as cancerous tissue. This damage sometimes affects whether the child or young person can produce new blood cells. Bone marrow transplants and peripheral blood stem cell transplants help the patient to produce blood cells again.

These procedures work by increasing the number of stem cells in the patient’s body. Stem cells are the ‘building blocks’ for all types of cells in the body at the earliest stage of development, including blood cells. Stem cells mostly live in the bone marrow (the spongy inner part of certain bones), where they constantly divide to make new blood cells. There are three main types of blood cells: red blood cells, white blood cells (some of which are immune cells that help fight infections), and platelets. Once blood cells mature they leave the bone marrow and enter the bloodstream.

Bone marrow transplants

In this procedure, bone marrow containing healthy stem cells is used to replace the cells that were damaged during chemotherapy or radiotherapy. After being introduced into the bloodstream of a patient, the stem cells travel to the bone marrow, where they begin to produce new white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Once the blood cells have matured, they are released into the person’s bloodstream.


	Bone marrow transplants and peripheral blood stem cell transplants help the patient to produce blood cells again.

Peripheral blood stem cell transplants

This procedure can also be used to replace cells that are damaged during chemotherapy or radiotherapy. A smaller number of stem cells called ‘peripheral blood stem cells’ also circulate in the bloodstream. Blood does not contain as many stem cells as bone marrow, but medical advances mean that peripheral blood stem cell transplants are increasingly being used in the treatment of certain cancers. The main reasons for this are:

obtaining the stem cells from a donor is a simpler procedure and does not require anaesthesia, unlike bone marrow donors
doctors are often able to harvest more stem cells from peripheral blood than from bone marrow
the recipient’s blood count often recovers faster than with a bone marrow transplant.

In both procedures the healthy bone marrow or blood is transplanted through a drip, just like a blood transfusion. The healthy cells for the procedure can come from the patient’s own body (autologous transplant), an identical twin (syngeneic transplant) or a matched donor (allogeneic transplant).

After the transplant, the child or young person will be carefully monitored in hospital for a few weeks while the new white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets are produced and their immune system recovers. The number of visitors may be restricted during this time because it is important that the patient is not exposed to infections.

For more details about this type of treatment, go to CancerBacup's website.