Description
Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue inside your bones. Bone marrow contains stem cells, which are immature cells that become blood cells.
People with life-threatening diseases, such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma can be treated with a bone marrow transplant. This is now often called a stem cell transplant. For this type of treatment, bone marrow is collected from a donor. Sometimes, people can donate their own bone marrow.
Bone marrow donation can be done either by collecting a donor's bone marrow surgically, or by removing stem cells from a donor's blood.
Alternative Names
Stem cell transplant - donation; Allogeneic donation; Leukemia - bone marrow donation; Lymphoma - bone marrow donation; Myeloma - bone marrow donation
Types of Bone Marrow Donation
There are two types of bone marrow donation:
- Autologous bone marrow transplant is when people donate their own bone marrow. "Auto" means self.
- Allogenic bone marrow transplant is when another person donates bone marrow. "Allo" means other.
With an allogenic transplant, the donor's genes must at least partly match the person's genes. A brother or sister is most likely to be a good match. Sometimes parents, children, and other relatives are good matches. But only about 30% of people who need a bone marrow transplant can find a matching donor in their own family.