Bone Marrow Transplant

Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant

In this procedure, the healthy cells come from a donor. The donor may be a relative, usually a sibling or sometimes a parent or child, or the donor may be unrelated (a volunteer). Mayo Clinic is a National Marrow Donor Program approved donor and collection center for unrelated BMT.

The stem cells can be collected either from the bone marrow or from the peripheral blood. For a bone marrow harvest, the donation procedure takes place in the operating room of the hospital, and the donor is given general anesthesia. Because the amount of bone marrow taken is small, the donor's body is usually able to replace the donated marrow within two to three weeks. It is uncommon for donors to have complications. The stem cells can also be collected from peripheral blood, after the blood has been stimulated by growth factors.

Once the stem cells are collected, they can be given to the recipient within a few hours or frozen until needed. Frozen or peripheral blood stem cells can be preserved for many years.

Non-myeloablative allogeneic BMT uses a less intense conditioning regimen and therefore may be associated with less risk to the patient and may allow older patients to undergo BMT. Non-myeloablative allogeneic BMT is also known as "mini-allogeneic BMT" or "reduced intensity conditioning." Whether a non-myeloablative allogeneic BMT is appropriate depends on many factors, including the type of cancers, the prior response to therapy, the patient's age and underlying medical condition.

Syngeneic Bone Marrow Transplant

A subset of allogeneic transplant, in syngeneic BMT, blood or marrow is taken from an identical twin.