In aplastic anemia, the bone marrow stops making blood cells.
Stem cell transplant is a major medical procedure that is usually performed when the body’s blood-forming system, the bone marrow, is severely affected or fails, or when certain diseases cannot be treated in any other way.
Stem cell transplant may be necessary or beneficial in the following medical conditions:
- Cancerous diseases, especially blood-related, such as leukemia, in which the bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells. It may also be useful in lymphoma and multiple myeloma (plasma cell cancers).
In these diseases, bone marrow is often destroyed after chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which is restored by stem cell transplantation.
- Bone marrow disorders, including aplastic anemia. This causes the bone marrow to stop producing blood cells. It also includes myelodysplasia, in which defective or ineffective blood cells begin to be produced.
- Genetic diseases including thalassemia, sickle cell anemia. In children, the only complete cure for these diseases is often a stem cell transplant.
