What is the use of bone marrow donation?

Bone marrow transplants are required when a persons bone marrow becomes damaged or diseased to such an extent that it stops functioning properly.

This may be due to certain cancers, such as:

• leukaemia cancer of the white blood cells
• non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the immune system), or a related cancer of the blood

Leukaemia has a few main sub-types:

• Leukaemia, acute lymphoblastic which mainly affects children, adolescents and young adults
• acute myeloid leukaemia which affects both children and adults
• chronic lymphocytic leukaemia which mainlyaffects older adults
• chronic myeloid leukaemia which mainly affects adults, although most are treated with drugs and do not need a transplant

Other diseases that may require a bone marrow transplant include:

• certain genetic blood and immune system disorders such as  sickle cell anaemia,  thalassaemia and some severe immune system diseases
• bone marrow failure (severe aplastic anaemia)
• other diseases that affect the blood, such as  multiple myeloma , a cancer that affects blood plasma cells

Bone marrow transplants are also sometimes necessary following certain treatments, such as high-dose  chemotherapy and  radiotherapy, which are often used to treat cancer. These treatments tend to damage healthy stem cells as well as destroying cancer cells.