Question: What Are the Types of a Bone Marrow or Stem Cell Transplant?
Answer:
Bone marrow and stem cell transplants are generally categorized depending on who donates and who receives the transplant.
There are three different possibilities:
- If the patient receives his or her own blood forming stem cells (collected before the transplant related chemotherapy or radiation starts), it is called an "autologous transplant."
- If the patient receives stem cells from an identical twin, the transplant is called "syngeneic."
- If the patient receives stem cells from siblings, parents or unrelated individuals, it is called an "allogeneic transplant."
Source:
Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology 7th Edition. Editors: VT DeVita, S Hellman and SA Rosenberg. Published by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2005.
