Before a patient can receive bone marrow or blood stem cells, they must first be collected from a donor. Occasionally, in a process known as an autologous transplantation, the patient donates his or her own marrow or stem cells prior to the transplant. Find out more about bone marrow collection and stem cell collection.
The patient undergoes the transplant procedure after receiving one to several days of high-dose chemotherapy or multiple sittings of radiation.
The stem cells are infused into the vein through an IV line just like a blood transfusion. The entire infusion takes between 1 to 5 hours to complete.
After the stem cells are in the body, they travel through the veins and settle inside the patients bone-marrow spaces. Here they start producing new blood cells – including white cells (WBCs), red cells (RBCs) and platelets. In medical terms this is called "engraftment." Engraftment occurs over the next 2 to 4 weeks. Complete normalization of all cells and immune functions may take a few months to a year.
Source:
Clinical Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Transplantation. Author: Kerry Atkinson and colleagues. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2003.
