What is a "bone marrow transplant" or a "stem cell transplant"?

What is a "bone marrow transplant" or a "stem cell transplant"?

Noam Z. Drazin (Hematologist & Oncologist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Group) gives expert video advice on: Can my leukemia be treated with surgery?; Can leukemia be treated with a bone marrow transplant?; How can I keep my leukemia from coming back? and more...

A bone marrow transplant involves the removal or the harvesting of bone marrow from a donor, from areas where bone marrow is produced, which happen to be in the hips. What we can do now, with the technology that's been evolving over the period of, let's say, 1 to 15 to 2 years, is extract the necessary cells to achieve the same response, that is, the stem cells or the precursor cells from the peripheral blood (your blood stream). So, what used to be a bone marrow transplant is really now just the infusion of someone's stem cells, either yours or someone else's depending on the disease and depending on the treatment needed. This leads to a much more easier harvesting from a donor - it's a little easier to convince donors to become donors because it doesn't involve such significant morbidity - and the ability to provide a patient with life-saving treatment without having to go through a significant amount of pain.