A bone marrow transplant is also called a stem cell transplant or, more specifically, a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Transplantation can be used to treat certain types of cancer, such as leukemia, myeloma, and lymphoma, and other blood and immune system diseases that affect the bone marrow.
The infusion of your new marrow or peripheral stem cells replaces the bone marrow destroyed by the chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. You might be a potential candidate for an autologous transplant if you have lymphoma, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin disease, germ cell cancer, or certain types of leukemia.
How long can you live after a bone marrow transplant? Understandably, transplants for patients with nonmalignant diseases have a much better success rate with 70% to 90 % survival with a matched sibling donor and 36% to 65% with unrelated donors.
People have more probability of surviving for another 15 years after a bone marrow transplant, who's been able to survive for at least 5 years after hematopoietic cell transplant without any signs and symptoms of relapse of the original disease. However, a normal life expectancy is not completely achieved.
The Canadian Cancer Society reports that 65–70% of people under 60 years old will go into complete remission after induction therapy, which is the first phase of treatment. People over the age of 60 years typically have a lower response rate, with approximately 25–40% surviving for 3 years or longer.
One factor is the age of the donor. Medical research has shown that cells from younger donors lead to better long-term survival for patients after transplant. Doctors request donors in the 18-35 age group 75% of the time. We are committed to providing the best possible outcome for patients.
To see if you are a potential bone marrow match, you will be tested to find out what type of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) you have. HLA is a protein found on most cells in your body — including those in your immune system. The closer the HLA match, the better chance that a bone marrow transplant will succeed.
A bone marrow transplant has serious risks. Some patients suffer from life-threatening problems as a result of their transplant. These problems can include serious infections and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) , in which the transplanted cells attack the patient's body.
People who might benefit from stem cell therapies include those with spinal cord injuries, type 1 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, stroke, burns, cancer and osteoarthritis.
The recipient of a bone marrow transplant in 1963, Nancy King McLain is one of the world's longest living bone marrow transplant survivors. The physician who performed Nancy's transplant as his very first, Robert Kyle, MD, of Mayo Clinic, remains her doctor today.
The three main types of blood and bone marrow cancer are leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma: Leukemia is a blood cancer that originates in the blood and bone marrow. It occurs when the body creates too many abnormal white blood cells and interferes with the bone marrow's ability to make red blood cells and platelets.
This spread is called metastasis. If a tumor spreads to the bone, it's called bone metastasis. Cancer cells that have spread to the bone can damage the bone and cause symptoms. Different treatments can be used to control the symptoms and the spread of bone metastases.
When the doses of chemotherapy or radiation needed to cure a cancer are so high that a person's bone marrow stem cells will be permanently damaged or destroyed by the treatment, a bone marrow transplant may be needed. Bone marrow transplants may also be needed if the bone marrow has been destroyed by a disease.
Sometimes it can take longer including some searches that may require multiple rounds of donor selections. It usually takes about 3 months from when a transplant team starts to search for a donor or cord blood unit until the day of transplant.
If a related donor transplant is an option for you, the healthy blood-forming cells come from someone in your family. Your donor may be your brother, sister, child or parent. Your transplant doctor may ask them to come to your hospital to donate the cells for your transplant.
A bone marrow transplant does not involve major surgery; rather, it's performed similarly to a blood transfusion. In a bone marrow transplant, bone marrow cells are collected from a donor's bloodstream through a needle inserted into a bone, typically a pelvic bone.
Research led by UAB's Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship and director Smita Bhatia, M.D., MPH (above) finds that patients who received autologous blood or marrow transplantation (using their own cells) over the past three decades lived on average seven years fewer than peers.
The success rate of bone transplant in India differs from hospital to hospital with a collective average ranging from 60-90%.
The total costs of a stem cell transplant are typically $350,000-$800,000, depending on whether the procedure is autologous, meaning some of the patient's own marrow or stem cells are used, or allogeneic, meaning cells are harvested from a donor.
Concern about “keeping up.” Doctors usually suggest allogeneic transplant recipients wait at least 1 year after transplant to go back to work until. That's because takes 9 to 12 months for your immune system to recover. Some people may get their doctor's okay to go back to work sooner.
This is also called “failure to engraft” or “non-engraftment.” This is serious but uncommon. The most common treatment for graft failure is another transplant. A second transplant may use cells from the same donor or from a different donor.