Chapter 8 8a
Therapeutic regimes established and future approaches Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) Bone marrow transplantation, if successful, can offer a complete cure to patients with thalassaemia major. BMT for thalassaemia started is 1981, with more than 1,500 cases so far treated.
What is a bone marrow transplant? Bone marrow is the spongy tissue found inside the bones (see 8a), which makes all the cells found in the blood. In adult life marrow is found in the ribs, sternum, skull, hips and spine, but at birth it is also found in other bones. Bone marrow contains 'stem cells' (see 8b) from which red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets are derived. A bone marrow transplant (BMT) involves taking (harvesting) bone marrow from a healthy individual (called the donor) to be donated to a patient (called the host or recipient). The patient's "unhealthy" marrow is first destroyed by drugs, or sometimes by irradiation, in a process known as conditioning. The healthy marrow, usually taken from the donor's hipbone, is then given as a liquid into the patient's blood stream, in a similar way to a regular blood transfusion (see 8c). Once in the recipient's blood, the donor's bone marrow cells travel to the large bones where they start producing normal, healthy blood cells. This takes about 2-3 weeks.
8b
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