Patients with certain forms of cancer like leukemia, breast cancer and lymphoma are sometimes treated by performing bone marrow transplant. The basic purpose of bone marrow transplant in women with breast cancer is to provide them high-dose chemotherapy that attacks cancer cells and proves damaging for the normal blood cells. And afterward substitutes the damaged cells with healthy ones.
The spongy tissues found inside bone are known as bone marrow. There are stem cells in the bone marrow found in breastbone, hips, skull, ribs and spine. These stem cells produce blood cells in the body. There are three kinds of blood cells and they are known as red blood cells that carry oxygen in the blood, white blood cells that fight against attacking viruses and bacteria in our body and platelets that help in clot-forming of the blood.
More often, the prescription of bone marrow transplantation is made on individual basis. The things which doctors consider are age, physical condition, diagnosis and stage of disease.
During a transplant, the given bone marrow comes from you or from a donor that has matching bone marrow with yours. The matching process is known as human leukocyte antigen testing (HLA testing). This is a series of blood tests that evaluate the compatibility of tissues between the receiver and the donor.
