Bone marrow transplantation, also called hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, is the medical-surgical treatment that replaces a bone marrow that is no longer functional with a healthy bone marrow, in order to restore normal blood cell production.
Practiced in the event of serious blood diseases (aplastic anemia, lymphomas, leukemias, etc.), bone marrow transplantation may be of the allogeneic or autologous type. Allogeneic means that the bone marrow is taken from a compatible donor; autologous, on the other hand, means that the bone marrow comes from the same patient to be treated (NB: at this juncture, before using them again, hematopoietic stem cells must undergo chemotherapy ).
It is a delicate, complex procedure that is performed only under certain conditions; among these, we note in particular: an optimal patient's state of health (in spite of the illness that afflicts him) and the impracticability (because ineffective) of any other alternative treatment.
The outcome of bone marrow transplants depends on:
- The type of transplant (autologous or allogeneic)
- The type and severity of the illness that required its execution
- Age and state of health of the recipient
- Tolerance to conditioning drugs and anti-rejection therapy
- The severity of the established complications
SURVIVAL: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HALLOGENIC TRANSPLANTATION AND AUTOLOGOES
Some US statistical studies, relating to the State of Arizona and Minnesota, report that ...- 100 days after the procedure, the survival rate of allogeneic bone marrow transplants is between 91% and 96.3% ; while that of autologous bone marrow transplants is between 97.6% and 98% .
- One year after treatment, the survival rate of allogeneic bone marrow transplants is between 63.3% and 73.2% ; while that of autologous bone marrow transplants is between 90% and 91.4% .
- The survival rate of bone marrow transplanted children is 91.8% and 72.4%, respectively 100 days and one year after the procedure. (NB: it should be pointed out that, at this juncture, the numerical data refer to both autologous and allogeneic type transplants; furthermore, the statistics only concerns Minnesota).
Such research has been reported - but given the similarity in terms of results, others could have been mentioned - to demonstrate how autologous procedures are more effective than allogeneic ones.
