Bone Marrow Transplant: A New Methodology in Cancer Treatment

Bone Marrow Transplant is the process of replacing the damaged bone marrow with the healthy bone marrow stem cells. Bone marrows are generally the soft, delicate fatty tissues present inside the bones, whereas, the stem cells in the bone marrow are the immature cells that are involved to give rise to all the blood cells - RBC, WBC and Platelets. This transplant procedures are generally used to treat patients with disease resulting in the bone marrow failure i.e. aplastic anemia, a life threatening blood cancers i.e. leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other genetic diseases. The bone marrow transplantation is also known as the Haemopoietic stem cell transplant.

 

Need for Bone Marrow Transplant in India

As rate of cancer is getting more and more prevalent, and transplantation being the ultimate option, the bone marrow transplant in India is getting massive attention. They are exclusively needed to treat the conditions that actually damage the bone marrow. As soon as it get damaged, it loses the tendency to produce normal blood cells.

 

Types of transplantation

Categorized into three different types, wherein, Autologous bone marrow transplant, as the name signifies is the process of transplantation from self. Before you receive high dose chemotherapy or radiation, stem cells are being removed from you and then stored in the freezer (cryopreservation). After you are done with the radiation therapy, these freeze stem cells are transferred into your body to generate the normal blood cells.

The Allogenic bone marrow transplant, as the name implies is the removal of the stm cells from other i.e. donor. Most of the time the donor genes partly match the recipient genes. Hence, a special blood tests are carried on. Brother and Sisters, Parents, children and relatives can be good matches.

For those whose disease is not cured with the initial treatment or who suffers from the recurrent lymphoma tends to opt for the lymphoma bone marrow transplant in conjunction with radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy or other new treatments.

However, the complications in bone marrow transplant is numerous, but, it totally depends upon the area of the body and the stage of disease.