What is bone marrow transplant?

Most people know that bone marrow transplants can have a positive therapeutic effect on some serious diseases and can even completely cure them. However, it is not a panacea. In some cases, bone marrow transplantation can worsen related diseases, aggravate the condition, and even endanger life in severe cases. So, what is a bone marrow transplant?

Bone marrow transplantation is the process of transplanting normal hematopoietic stem cells into the patient's body to replace the diseased hematopoietic stem cells and thus restore the patient's hematopoietic immune function. There are two situations for bone marrow transplantation: one is for example leukemia, where all of the patient's own leukemia cells are killed first and then normal hematopoietic stem cells are transplanted, so that the various blood cells that grow back will be normal.

Another treatment for lymphoma is to kill tumor cells as much as possible. However, this will also damage the hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow. In this case, the patient's bone marrow can be extracted before treatment and frozen in vitro for a short period of time. After chemotherapy or radiotherapy, the patient's own bone marrow can be transplanted back into the body.

The therapeutic principle of bone marrow transplantation is to transplant bone marrow cells from one person to another person, thereby establishing new hematopoietic stem cells in the recipient's body to perform normal hematopoietic function. The human body contains a large amount of bone marrow. Donating bone marrow does not cause much loss to the donor himself, but the bone marrow provided, which is full of vigorous vitality, can save dying lives.