In an autologous BMT the patient is the donor and the recipient of the bone marrow.
Autologous transplant involves the removal of bone marrow prior to treatment.
The bone marrow is frozen so that it can later be returned to the patient with a needle to replace bone marrow. A procedure in which doctors replace marrow destroyed by treatment with high doses of anticancer drugs or radiation. Sometimes breast cancer becomes resistant to treatment with radiation therapy or chemotherapy. With continued exposure to radiation therapy and chemotherapy, sometimes breast cancer becomes resistant to treatment. The blood forming stem cells needed for transplantation reside in the bone marrow, but also are present in low concentrations in the peripheral blood.