Updated: 09/07/2009 5:20 PM KSTP.com | Print |  Email
By: Becky Nahm

Mayo: Blood Marrow Donors Make a Difference

Bone marrow donations can help cancer patients live longer or even wipe out cancer altogether, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Dennis Gastineau said bone marrow is the spongy tissue inside some bones. It's job is to produce blood cells.

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow, and often patients sometimes need a bone marrow transplant to fight the disease.

Gastineau said, "The term bone marrow transplant always brings up the image of someone going into an O.R. (operating room) and having bone marrow put in. But it's not that. It's actually more like a blood transfusion."

Transplanted blood stem cells are put into the blood stream. Ideally the transplanted cells begin producing new, healthy cells.

The cells used for transplantation come from several sources: healthy people can donate marrow from their hip bone, or they can donate blood stem cells, or, if patients can't find a matching donor, they can be transplanted with stem cells from their own blood.

In a process called Aphersis, a machine removes only stem cells from the blood.

Amy Brooks went through the process and it worked for her. Before the procedure she was given a 15 percent chance of survival, but now 11 years later the disease is in her past and she's moving forward.