Bone Marrow Transplant – When is it Required?

Sometimes the marrow is diseased in certain cancerous and non-cancerous diseases like leukaemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, sickle celled anaemia, thalassemia, aplastic anaemia, congenital neutropenia etc. In some other cases the bone marrow is destroyed by heavy doses of chemotherapy for cancers elsewhere in the body. In these cases replacement by a healthy bone marrow is required for the survival of the patient. This replacement of the diseased or destroyed bone marrow by a healthy marrow is known as bone marrow transplant (BMT). In all these cases there is malfunctioning of the bone marrow which results in reduced / defective blood cell productionIn a bone marrow transplant, healthy marrow is infused into the patient’s blood-stream. In a successful transplant, the new bone marrow migrates to the cavities of the large bones, engrafts and begins producing normal blood cells. Get Estimate

Treatments of Sickle Cell Disease and Sickle Cell Anemia

Childhood Conditions Treated With Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplant

Stem Cell Transplant (also called Bone Marrow Transplant) is Used to Treat Many Conditions Affecting Children and Teens, Including:

Bone Marrow Transplant Procedure

Step 1 Extraction / Harvesting of bone marrow cells from the donor by making few punctures under General Anaesthesia. High dose of chemotherapy or radiotherapy is given to destroy the diseased marrow or destroy the cancer elsewhere and also to suppress the patient’s own immune system (in case of allogeneic transplant), so that the blood stem cells are not rejected.

Step 2 Pre-engraftment (before the transplanted blood stem cells start working). After high dose chemo-radiotherapy, the blood stem cells are destroyed and normal blood cells are not produced. The patients need to be kept in a clean room within the BMT unit in strict isolation during this time. They also need a lot of blood and platelet transfusion.

Step 3 Post-engraftment (after the transplanted blood stem cells start working). Once the donated stem cells start functioning, the patients can come out of critical isolation. As the counts of blood cells steadily increase and the patient improves clinically, he/she can be discharged. However regular checkup and follow-ups are essential to detect any health problem or graft versus host reactions.

A bone marrow transplant may completely or partially cure your illness. If the transplant is a success, you can go back to most of your normal activities as soon as you feel well enough. Most times it takes up to 1 year to recover fully.

It can take as long as a year for the new bone marrow to function normally. Patients are closely monitored during this time to identify any infections or complications that may develop.

A successful bone marrow transplant requires an expert medical team – doctors, nurses, and other support staff – who are experienced in bone marrow transplants, can promptly recognize problems and emerging side effects, and know how to react swiftly and properly if problems do arise.

A good bone marrow transplant program will also recognize the importance of providing patients and their families with emotional and psychological support before, during and after the transplant, and will make personal and other support systemsreadily available to families for this purpose. All this is and more is provided at our affiliate hospitals. We make this difficult journey easy for the patient and his relatives.

How to Get Started ?

The patient should have a related and matching donor. The following tests should be done for both patient and the related donor and also please email the reports to us for opinion by India’s leading specialist doctors

• HLA Typing
• Serum Ferritin Report
• Blood Screening ReportGet Estimate

Different types of Bone Marrow Transplant

1. Autologous bone marrow transplant: “Auto” means “self.” Immature marrow cells (stem cells) are removed from the patient himself before he receives high-dose chemotherapy or radiation treatment. After these treatments are done, the stems cells are put back in the body. This is called a “rescue” transplant.

2. Allogeneic bone marrow transplant: “Allo” means “other.” Immature marrow cells are removed from another person, called a donor. Most times, the donor must have the same genetic makeup as the patient, so that their blood is a “match” to the patient’s. Special blood tests are done to determine if a donor is a good match for the patient. A brother or sister is most likely to be a good match. However, sometimes parents, children, and other relatives may be good matches. If the patient’s identical twin becomes the donor then it is called Syngeneic bone marrow transplant. Donors who are not related to the patient may be found through international bone marrow registries.

3. Umbilical cord blood transplant: Immature marrow cells (stem cells) are removed from a new born baby’s umbilical cord immediately after being born. The stem cells are stored until they are needed for a transplant. Umbilical cord blood cells are so immature, that the problem of mismatch seldom occurs.