A bone marrow transplant is also known as a stem cell transplant. It is a procedure that is designed to replace unhealthy bone marrow (diseased or damaged) with healthy bone marrow. It is performed after a patient has high-dose chemotherapy or radiation treatment for conditions that do not respond to standard doses.

A bone marrow transplant may be used to treat people with:

·       Life-threatening blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma or multiple myeloma

·       Diseases which result in bone marrow failure like aplastic anemia

·       Other immune system or genetic diseases

What is bone marrow? Bone marrow is the spongy tissue inside bones that produces blood cells, including white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. When bone marrow is damaged, it no longer produces these cells. This can cause weakness, anemia, infections, excessive bleeding and even death. When high doses of chemotherapy and radiation are used to kill cancer cells, bone marrow cells also may be destroyed. Bone marrow and stem cell transplants enable doctors to treat cancer with aggressive chemotherapy and radiation because they can replace the bone marrow cells destroyed in the treatment.

A bone marrow transplant may cause the following symptoms:

·       Chest pain

·       Drop in blood pressure

·       Fever, chills, flushing

·       Funny taste in the mouth

·       Headache

·       Hives

·       Nausea

·       Pain

·       Shortness of breath