How Does Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation Work?

In an autologous transplant the high-dose treatment kills the cancer cells, but it also gets rid of the blood-producing cells that are left in your bone marrow. Afterward, the collected stem cells are put back into your bloodstream, allowing the bone marrow to produce new blood cells.

PBSC harvesting is similar to giving blood. It is easier than taking cells from a person’s bone marrow, which is sometimes done for Allogeneic Transplants. Also, it does not require an operation or general anesthesia.

At Memorial Sloan Kettering, stem cells are collected in the blood donor room using an apheresis machine. Over the course of one to five days, blood is taken out of a vein and put through the machine, which collects the stem cells. The other parts of the blood are then returned to your body.

Most people don’t have side effects from blood collection and can go back to their regular activities. These activities are especially done by Bone Marrow Transplant Specialist doctors.

Preparing for a Transplant

Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation

Once your stem cells have been collected and you know the date of the transplant, you will go through a process called a preparative regimen. It’s called conditioning or cytotoxic treatment. In this step, doctors use chemotherapy with or without radiation to kill cancerous cells. Our doctors customize your treatment based on your disease and which therapy it is most likely to respond to.

The preparative regimen may be given over several days. People usually have the transplant a day or two after their last chemotherapy or radiation dose.

Transplantation and Recovery

Doctors usually add the collected stem cells into the patient’s bloodstream in the same way they perform a blood transfusion. Over the following days and weeks, the transplanted stem cells move to the marrow space in the bones. There, they gradually begin to produce new blood cells.

Between two and three weeks after the transplant, Bone Marrow Transplant Specialist doctors usually start to find newly formed blood cells in the patient’s bloodstream. With time, a successful transplant graft will make red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

In the day’s right after a transplant, you need a lot of medical support. You may get transfusions of irradiated blood products, such as platelets and red blood cells. You may also get antibiotics to prevent and treat bacterial, viral, and fungal infections. These infections are most likely to happen in the first three months after transplantation. People who have had stem cell transplants may also have complications because of the chemotherapy and radiation given before the transplant. Such complications may require more treatments.