There are a number of diseases that may involve the bone marrow, including infection and malignancy. In patients who develop a bone marrow malignancy (e.g., leukemia) it may be possible to harvest nonmalignant cells from the patient’s bone marrow or cells from another person’s bone marrow. The patient’s own marrow can be destroyed with chemotherapy or radiation and the new cells infused. This treatment is bone marrow transplantation.
In the clinic