Your treatment will be individualized based on your unique medical history. Unfortunately, these high doses also suppress the bone marrow, deplete the body s supply of blood cells and leave the patient vulnerable to anemia, infection, and bleeding. The stem cell transplant is designed to rescue the patient from bone marrow suppression by replenishing the bone marrow, which allows the body to make new blood cells. However, until the blood counts recover to satisfactory numbers, the patient must be supported in a protective environment. To understand what a stem cell transplant is, you must first understand what the bone marrow is and what it does in the body.
Bone marrow is the spongy substance found inside bones.
Under the microscope, it resembles the cells seen in the blood and actually is the factory where stem cells develop. Cells that transport oxygen to all parts of the body and make blood look red. Cells that fight infection and make up the immune system. There are many types of white blood cells, including neutrophils which play a prominent role in fighting bacterial infections, and lymphocytes, which play a role in fighting certain kinds of infections, such as viruses, or the cancer itself. The stem cell transplant procedure involves conditioning the patient with high-dose chemotherapy, with or without radiation, to destroy the existing cancer cells.