HCT 101

What is a bone marrow transplant?

A bone marrow transplant is a treatment that replaces unhealthy marrow with a healthy one. We refer to a bone marrow transplant as a hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT).  HCT uses various cell sources, not just bone marrow, to treat a patient.

How does transplant work?

Before transplant, patients receive chemotherapy (chemo) with or without radiation to destroy the diseased blood-forming cells and marrow. Then, healthy cells are given to the patient. The new cells go directly into the bloodstream through an intravenous (IV) line, or tube. It’s just like getting blood or medicine through an IV. The cells find their way into the marrow where they grow and start to make healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Many different words are used to talk about transplant.  They include:

• Allogeneic Transplant
• Auto Transplant
• Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT)
• Matched, Unrelated Donor Transplant
• Related Donor, Haploidentical Donor Transplant
• Stem Cell Transplant
• Hematopoietic Cell Transplant (HCT)

What diseases can HCT treat?

HCT can treat:

• Blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma
• Bone marrow diseases like aplastic anemia
• Other immune system or genetic diseases like sickle cell disease

Read more about the 3 common types of HCT:

1.     Autologous transplant – uses your own blood-forming cells

2.     Allogeneic transplant – uses blood-forming cells donated by someone else

3.     Haploidentical transplant – a type of allogeneic transplant

Understand Different Transplant Types

•  View recently published definitions for cell products, cell infusions and transplantation episodes. 

Understand Transplant Therapy and Matching

• Learn about cell sources, HLA typing and matching, cord blood search process and the probability of finding a match.

Learn About Post-Transplant Care

• View information on transplant early complications, recommended vaccinations and long-term care.  

Access the Latest Published Research on Transplant

• Browse the latest published research organized by topic and learn about the research we conduct.