Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Bone Marrow Transplantation
Bone marrow is the spongy tissue inside some of your bones, such as your hip and thigh bones. It contains immature cells, called stem cells. The stem cells can develop into red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body, white blood cells, which fight infections, and platelets, which help the blood to clot.
A bone marrow transplant is a procedure that replaces a person's faulty bone marrow stem cells. Doctors use these transplants to treat people with certain diseases, such as:
- Leukemia
- Severe blood diseases such as thalassemias, aplastic anemia, and sickle cell anemia
- Multiple myeloma
- Certain immune deficiency diseases
Before you have a transplant, you need to get high doses of chemotherapy and possibly radiation. This destroys the faulty stem cells in your bone marrow. It also suppresses your body's immune system so that it won't attack the new stem cells after the transplant.
In some cases, you can donate your own bone marrow stem cells in advance. The cells are saved and then used later on. Or you can get cells from a donor. The donor might be a family member or unrelated person.
Bone marrow transplantation has serious risks. Some complications can be life-threatening. But for some people, it is the best hope for a cure or a longer life.
It sits within Immune System and Transplantation and Donation.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Cancer Institute.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Bone Marrow Transplantation
1,977 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Mismatched Related Donor Versus Matched Unrelated Donor Stem Cell Transplantation for Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults With Acute Leukemia or Myelodysplastic SyndromeChildren's Oncology Group
- Prophylactic NAC to Improve Platelet Engraftment After Haploidentical Transplantation in Severe Aplastic Anemia PatientsPeking University People's Hospital
- A Trial Comparing Unrelated Donor BMT With IST for Pediatric and Young Adult Patients With Severe Aplastic Anemia (TransIT, BMT CTN 2202)Boston Children's Hospital
- Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) With Donor Leukocyte Infusion to Treat Relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndromes Post Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell TransplantationSawa Ito, MD
- Arsenic Trioxide to Prevent Relapse in Patients Undergoing Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation for Acute Myeloid Leukemia or Myelodysplastic SyndromeUniversity of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center
- Naive T Cell Depletion for Preventing Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease in Children and Young Adults With Blood Cancers Undergoing Donor Stem Cell TransplantFred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Research already completed
- Retrospective Study of Viral Reactivation Across All Bone Marrow Transplant Protocols Since 2010National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- About Transplantation -- Blood Stem CellHealth Resources and Services Administration
- Finding a Blood Stem Cell DonorNMDP
- Getting a Stem Cell or Bone Marrow TransplantAmerican Cancer Society
- Treatments for Blood DisordersNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
- What Is a Bone Marrow or Blood Stem Cell TransplantNMDP
Living With
Related Issues
- Donating Stem Cells or Bone MarrowAmerican Cancer Society
- How to Prevent Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD)NMDP
- Planning for a Transplant -- Blood Stem CellHealth Resources and Services Administration
- Stem Cell or Bone Marrow Transplant Side EffectsAmerican Cancer Society
- Treatment Steps Before a Blood Stem Cell TransplantNMDP
Statistics and Research
- Donation and Transplantation StatisticsHealth Resources and Services Administration
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Bone Marrow TransplantationNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Bone Marrow Transplantation. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Bone Marrow Transplantation, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.