How does a bone marrow transplant help people receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy?

High doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy are often necessary to destroy cancer cells, but these treatments can also damage or destroy the hematopoietic stem cells located in the bone marrow. Because these stem cells are responsible for producing red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, their destruction leaves a patient highly susceptible to infection, bleeding, and anemia.12

A bone marrow transplant—more accurately described as stem cell therapy—serves as a vital recovery strategy. In an autologous transplant, a patient’s own healthy stem cells are harvested and stored before the aggressive cancer treatment begins. Once the chemotherapy or radiation is complete, these cells are reinfused into the patient's bloodstream. The transplanted stem cells then colonize the damaged marrow, where they begin to repopulate the blood and immune system with functional cells, allowing the patient to survive otherwise lethal doses of therapy.123