Stem Cell Transplantation

Our Approach

A blood and bone marrow stem cell transplant is a procedure that replaces a person’s malfunctioning stem cells with healthy ones. Doctors use stem cell transplants to treat people who have certain cancers, severe blood diseases or certain immune-deficiency diseases.

Stem cells are found in bone marrow, a spongy tissue inside the bones that is responsible for the body’s generation of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. During the last five to ten years, however, stem cells for transplantation are being obtained increasingly from the blood stream rather than the bone marrow.

When considering a blood and bone marrow transplant, physicians at the Indiana Blood & Marrow Transplantation (IBMT) evaluate each patient based on general physical condition, disease process, age, co-morbid conditions and prognostic indicators. Patients participate in Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved treatment protocols.

IBMT considers the following conditions treatable and/or curable with bone marrow transplantation:

• Aplastic Sickle Cell Anemia
• Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
• Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)
• Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)
• Myelofibrosis
• Preleukemic syndromes (myelodysplastic syndromes)
• Lymphoma
• Multiple myeloma
• Other rare diseases for which stem cell transplant has been shown to be effective

Types of stem cell transplants

The two main types of stem cell transplants are autologous and allogenic. For an autologous stem cell transplant, your own stem cells are collected and stored for later use. This works best when you still have enough healthy stem cells; if you have cancer, the cancer cells are removed or destroyed from the collected cells. For an autologous stem cell transplant, you get stem cells from a donor.