Bone Marrow Transplant

What is a Bone Marrow Transplant? (BMT)

A BMT is a procedure to replace a damaged or destroyed bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells. Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue inside your bones. Stem cells are immature cells in the bone marrow that give rise to all of your blood cells.

Is BMT and Stem Cell Transplant the same?

BMT is sometimes known as Stem Cell Transplant.

The objective of a blood and marrow stem cell transplant is to replace faulty stem cells with healthy ones.

The purpose of bone marrow and hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells

The Bone marrow produces more than 20 billion new blood cells every day throughout a person's life. The driving force behind this process is the hematopoietic stem cell. Hematopoietic stem cells are immature cells found in both the bloodstream and bone marrow.

These specialised cells have the ability to create more blood-forming cells or to mature into one of the three different cell types that make up our blood. These include red blood cells (cells that carry oxygen to all parts of the body), white blood cells (cells that help the body fight infections and diseases), and platelets (cells that help blood clot and control bleeding). Signals passing from the body to the bone marrow tell the stem cells which cell types are needed the most.

For people with bone marrow diseases and certain types of cancer, the essential functions of the red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are disrupted because the hematopoietic stem cells don’t mature properly. To help restore the bone marrow’s ability to produce healthy blood cells, doctors may recommend stem cell transplantation.

What is Stem Cell Transplant?

Stem Cell Transplant is a type of treatment for certain cancers, particularly leukemias and lymphomas.Transplant is the process of replacing diseased marrow with normal functioning bone marrow. There is a new technique that requires no surgical intervention. This can be done in the comfort of a ward set-up.

This new technique is called PERIPHERAL BLOOD STEM CELL TRANSPLANT (PBSCT). 

There are 3 types of PBSCT.

1      

       AUTOLOGOUS:
 Using the patient’s own stem cells

2       ALLOGENEIC:
Using stem cells from a donor other than the patient

3       SYNGENIC:

Using stem cells from a twin donor

In 1999, the Stem Cell Transplant programme began at UKMMC-MAKNA Cancer Centre, a collaborative effort with Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM). Since then more than 3,000 patients have consulted the unit for a possible stem cell transplant. The Stem Cell transplant ward is one of MAKNA’s services offered to the public in collaboration with HUKM.