Genre: Information/Explanation

Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplants Bone marrow is a soft substance in our bones . It is the job of the bone marrow to make our blood . We have three types of blood cells . Red blood cells , white blood cells and platelet blood cells . It is the job of red blood cells to carry oxygen in the body , the white blood cells to protect our bodies from infection and the platelet blood cells to make our blood clot so that when we wound ourselves , the wound heals and we do not lose lots of blood . When these blood cells are at the earliest stage of development , they are called stem cells . A stem cell or bone marrow transplant provides healthy bone marrow to a patient to allow much higher doses of chemotherapy and improve the chances of curing the disease . When the cells are taken from the bone marrow we talk about bone marrow transplant and when cells are taken from the blood we talk about stem cell transplant . One type of transplant is using stem cells or bone marrow from a donor ( called allogeneic transplant ) . Another way is by using the patient's own stem cells or bone marrow . This is sometimes called an autologous transplant or an autograft , but strictly speaking it is not actually a transplant as this method does not use stem cells from someone else . It is therefore often rather called high dose treatment and stem cell support . When very high doses of chemotherapy are given , the treatment destroys the cells in the bone marrow . The doctors can take stem cells or bone marrow from the patient before they get the chemotherapy and then store the cells while the treatment is going on . This way , healthy cells from the patient are being protected while the strong treatment is destroying the cells that are left in the bone marrow . When the treatment is over , the healthy stem cells or bone marrow are given back to the patient and help them fight infection and cope with the strong treatment . With a proper transplant , the patient need another person ( a donor ) to give them healthy stem cells or bone marrow .