Bone Marrow Transplants

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In the last 40 years, the emergence of bone marrow transplants as a therapeutic modality for fatal disease and as a curative option for individuals born with inherited disorders that carry limited life expectancy and poor quality of life (G). Over 4,500 hematopoietic stem cell [bone marrow] transplants performed on patients in the United States annually (H). Bone marrow transplants originally developed to allow the use of very high doses of cytotoxic drug treatments for malignancies, such as leukemia (B). Two types of possible donors: mismatched related donors [mmRD] and matched sibling donors [MSD] (E). Although bone marrow transplants seem promising, there can be drawbacks to this procedure. Graft-versus-host disease, where the body attacks itself, being the major obstacle. The purpose of this paper is to inform one about transplants and to see if this is a high-quality study to cure malignancy diseases.

Physicians since ancient times had the idea of removing damaged parts of the body and replacing them with healthy organs to cure the patient with a disease. World War II brought research in tissue transplantation to the forefront: skin grafts for burn victims, blood transfusions required careful AOB blood typing and monitoring of blood group antibodies; and high doses of radiation lead to bone marrow failure and death. Massive radiation exposures provided an opportunity for advancement therapies for bone marrow failure syndrome and leukemia. The concept of the bone marrow transplants to treat humans with inherited disease of the immune system, marrow failure syndrome, and leukemia met with much doubt, enthusiasm, and also many disappointments. Transferring what the physicians knew from experimental trails with animal models t...

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F. Grunebaum E, Mazzolari E, Fulvio P, Dallera D, et.al: Bone marrow transplantation for severe combine immune deficiency. JAMA 2006;295 (5): 508-518

G. Friedrichs B, Tichelli A, Bacigalupo A, et.al: Long-term outcome and late effects in patients transplanted with mobilized blood or bone marrow: a randomized trial. The Lancet Oncology 2010;11 (4): 331-338

H. Pancevski B: Swiss child has a successful bone marrow transplant from ìsavior siblingî. British Medical Journal 2006;332 (8 June): 1352

I. Kim D, Kwok B, Steinberg A: Simultaneous acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma successfully treated with allogenic stem cells transplantation. Southern Medical Journal 2010;103 (12): 1246-1249

J. Diekema DS, Joffe S, Vandeven AM, Lantos JD: Bone marrow donation between siblings living in different families. Pediatrics in Review 2010;127 (1): 158-162

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