It is important to keep in mind that these results are preliminary and that more follow-up studies and analyses are needed. For right now, however, they provide another helpful piece of information for women with breast cancer and their physicians as they consider individual treatment options. When a patient is treated with chemotherapy, the drugs that destroy the cancer cells also damage normal, healthy cells. As far as the cancer is concerned, this is often a good thing. However, such high doses also take their toll on the body, destroying the bone marrow that produces essential white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.
Bone marrow is the soft, spongy material found inside the bones.
It contains stem cells, which are the immature cells that develop into white and red blood cells and platelets. A bone marrow transplant replaces the marrow that has been destroyed by the high-dose chemotherapy. Stem cells from the bone marrow circulate in the blood and can completely restore bone marrow function on their own. In autologous peripheral blood stem cell support, healthy stem cells are removed from the blood and stored before high-dose chemotherapy is given. After treatment, they are returned to the body, where they can produce new cells to replace those that were destroyed.