Bone marrow or stem cell transplants for children's cancers

A blood stem cell or bone marrow transplant| allows your child to have much higher doses of chemotherapy| than usual.

This can improve the chance of curing their cancer, but has more side effects. Very high doses of chemotherapy, sometimes with radiotherapy| to the whole body (total body irradiation, or TBI), are given over a few days.

Bone marrow and stem cells

Bone marrow is a spongy material that is found inside some hollow bones.

The bone marrow contains stem cells which develop into the three different types of blood cells:

• red blood cells, which carry oxygen to all cells in the body
• white blood cells, which are essential for fighting infection
• platelets, which help the blood to clot and prevent bleeding.

When the cells are fully mature they are released into the bloodstream. Stem cells can be collected from either bone marrow or blood.

Very high doses of chemotherapy destroy the bone marrow. So after high-dose chemotherapy, your child is given stem cells as a drip into their central line. The stem cells make their way into your child’s bone marrow and start producing mature blood cells again.

Types of transplant

There are two main types of transplant:

Autologous

This uses your child’s own stem cells or bone marrow – it is also known as high-dose treatment and blood stem cell support.

Allogeneic

This uses stem cells or bone marrow from a donor – it is also known as an allograft. An allogeneic transplant is a more complicated procedure and is carried out in specialist hospitals. Recovery may take several months or more.

Our section on bone marrow and stem cell transplants| gives further information on the treatment and how to deal with its side effects.