Hi Janire. Bone marrow transplants, stem cell transplants (also called "PBSC" transplants), and cord blood transplants are basically the same process. You are given conditioning ahead of time to try to eliminate "bad" cells that made your immune system faulty. Then donated "good" cells are given to you with the hope that they will take over as your new, functional immune system.
Bone marrow transplants have been done for decades. Stem cell transplants and cord blood transplants have become more and more common over the last decade. Originally, cord blood transplants were given only to children or small-bodied adults, simply because there aren't many cells in cord blood. But then transplant specialists figured out how to use two cord blood units in one transplant so cord blood is now available to patients of all sizes.
For treatment centers in the U.S. you can get
statistics from the National Marrow Donor Program on how many of each type of transplant they have performed and for what diseases.
No matter which type of transplant it is,
nobody can give you a guarantee of success. They are all risky, but so is not treating a serious disease. Researchers continue to study the tradeoffs among the methods and they do find statistical differences among bone marrow, PBSC, and cord-blood transplants, but none of these methods is clearly better than the others in all cases. Instead of picking one method for all patients, doctors look at the available donors as well as other factors such as the degree of match, your age, and your overall health.
Continue to ask questions, here and when talking to doctors, and you'll learn more that can help you to help yourself. You are your best health advocate!
Mon Mar 26, 2012, 07:39 PM
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