Are bone marrow transplant safe?What is the percentage of success?

Answer 1

Bone marrow transplants can be dangerous. They are performed to treat conditions which have a very high probability of killing the patient, so, for the people who get them, they are safer than not getting one. Anyone who is a candidate for a bone marrow transplant should expect their doctor to give them a full explanation of the risks of getting the transplant and the risks they face without the transplant. If the doctor does not initiate that explanation, the patient should ask for it.

Answer 2

Bone marrow transplants are relatively common actually for transplants. Here are two key points to bone marrow transplants.

1. The host's bone marrow (and thus hematopoietic stem cells) must be destroyed by irradiation, since it is his/her blood cells that are causing the pathology (leukemia for example).

2. There is a major risk with bone marrow transplants that doesnt really exist significantly with other transplants. It's called graft versus host disease. Remember that in bone marrow transplants we are transplanting stem cells with someone elses DNA, and hence HLA (genes that encode the specificity of your immune system). This means that the donor's stem cells inside the host's bone marrow can mature, and become SELF REACTIVE, and destroy host tissue. This is why the HLA of the donor must be a close match to the HLA of the host!!

I'm not sure of exact success figures, but they are probably not very good in that the procedure is used to fight mortal condtions in the first place, like blood cancers.

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_marrow_transplant