Pros And Cons Of Bone Marrow Transplant For Leukemia

You might have come across patients suffering from sickle anemia who have no other option but to go in for bone marrow transplant. Whether it is sickle cell anemia or other types of blood disorders and blood cancers, there are reasons to believe that bone marrow transplant could be the only option. When a person suffers from acute anemia including sickle cell anemia, over a period of time, his or her life could be under threat. This is because this form of anemia and other forms of blood cancers lead to a massive shortage of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. We need to understand these healthy cells are made in our bone marrow. The bone marrow is located within the hollow of our bones and they produce healthy red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets amongst other things. When a person gets impacted by various blood disorders, the bone marrow does not produce healthy cells and this leads to anemia and other problems.

What Are The Causes?

There are many reasons for the malfunctioning of the bone marrow transplant blood type match. It could be because of various forms of cancer, some hereditary blood conditions, side effects and reactions of some medicines, amongst other reasons. Hence, there is a need to correct the situation or else the patients could slip into severe anemia and face an acute shortage of blood cells and platelets.

What Is Leukemia Bone Marrow Transplant

Leukemia is a form of blood cancer where the healthy cells are destroyed by marauding cancer cells. This happens across the body and the bone marrow, in particular, is impacted very badly. Hence, the best option is to replace the damaged bone marrow cells with healthy ones. This is what leukemia bone marrow transplant is all about. This results in the bone marrow being able to produce healthy cells. A combination of other treatments with healthy bone marrow cells could help in retrieving the situation of the patient and might also reverse the symptoms and conditions associated with a bone marrow transplant.

Pros Of Bone Marrow Transplant

  •    It helps in replacing sick and damaged bone marrow cells with new ones.
  •    It could assist in overcoming the conditions and symptoms associated with leukemia and other forms of blood cancer.
  •    The process is simple and not very painful or complicated.
  •    The patient need not spend days in the hospital for any type of bone marrow transplantation.
  •    The success rate of bone marrow transplantation is quite encouraging.
  •    With newer technologies and methods, the process is not as expensive and cost-prohibitive as it was a few years ago.

Cons Of Bone Marrow Transplant

  •    Risk of rejection continues to be a major problem with a bone marrow transplant. The rejection can happen immediately or even after many weeks and months. Hence, there is a need to closely monitor the condition of the patient post such transplants.
  •    Risk of infection is another problem that continues to bother doctors and patients alike. Here again close and regular monitoring of the patient for the first few days and months is the only way out.

 

Contact US:

Gift of Life Marrow Registry
Address: 800 Yamato Rd suite 101 Boca Raton, FL
Phone: (800) 962-7769