What Is A Bone Marrow Transplant?
- A bone marrow transplant replaces original bone marrow with healthy bone marrow through an IV drip
- A patient will be in the hospital up to four weeks after the transplant for the new bone marrow to fully develop
- The transplant will weaken a patient’s immune system, so physicians will provide antibiotics and blood transfusions to keep them safe
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a type of cancer in the bone marrow. Once a person has received an AML diagnosis, and went through chemotherapy or radiation, the next step is the bone marrow transplant. This is critical in the treatment process, seeing as a person’s original bone marrow will be replaced by healthier bone marrow. While the procedure may sound frightening, Dr. Costello assures patients that it isn’t as suspenseful as it appears.
Read MoreIn addition to blood and platelet transfusions, physicians will give patients protective antibiotics in order to keep them safe while their immune system is weak and the new bone marrow is growing.
Bone Marrow Biopsies For Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
Symptoms of AML are caused by abnormal red and white blood cell counts, which are found in bone marrow. In order to examine these cells, physicians must perform a bone marrow biopsy which will extract liquid bone marrow and a small chip of bone from the back of the hip. Red and white blood cells are in charge of creating energy and fighting off infection in the body, so abnormal cells and low blood counts can lead to fatigue, shortness of breath, and infections.
"What we can do is actually make slides and look at cells underneath the microscope with our eyes to get a better sense of 'are all the cells are there, are the cells normal, do they look abnormal' and then we do additional testing from there to further characterize any abnormal cells that may be present,” Dr. Tara Lin, Director of the Acute Leukemia Program at the University of Kansas Medical Center, explains to SurvivorNet.
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