Supportive Care Bone marrow transplants are useful in the treatment of a number of life-threatening diseases, including leukemias, lymphomas, breast cancer, aplastic anemia and sickle cell anemia. At the same time, the patient's immune system is damaged, or completely destroyed, from the treatment. In an autologous transplant, the patient's own marrow, or blood stem cells, are used. An allogeneic transplant uses the marrow of another person, either a related or unrelated donor. The chances of a bone marrow match between two unrelated people range from one in 100 to one in 2 million, depending on the genetic code of the patient.
Matches are easier to find among siblings.
About 30 percent of patients have a brother or sister who is able to donate marrow. Searching the NMDP registry for a marrow match takes an average of four to six months. Often, this is too long for patients with aggressive or recurrent cancers. At any given time, there are as many as 2,000 patients looking for matches in the registry. Cord blood is rich in stem cells - the cells necessary to restore the blood system.