Chemotherapy as a cancer treatment destroys the blood generating cells in the bone marrow, which is why transplants are often necessary in order to increase the life expectation of patients treated for tumors. Stem cell transplantation seems to be the right support for chemotherapy, and so far, thousands of people have benefited from the regenerative advantages of such transplant therapy. There are several steps that need to be taken before the stem cell transplants are possible: a donor has to be looked for, but in the absence of compatibility the patient’s own cells may be used. After collection, they will be frozen and stored until the intervention.

The stem cell transplants are injected into the patient’s bloodstream and they thus reach the bone marrow where they start producing blood cells. There are several cycles of stem cell transplants that need to be performed depending on the cycles of the chemotherapy treatment. How can stem cells contribute to blood formation? Well, these remarkable biological cellular formations can generate the three types of blood cells such as the red blood cells, the white blood cells and the platelets. The red cells transport the oxygen through the body, the white cells fight against bacteria acting as body defenses and the platelets control blood clotting and bleeding.

Although stem cell transplants seem like a separate therapy, it is worth mentioning the fact that the blood and the bone marrow normally contain stem cells, but these get destroyed in cancer patients because of chemotherapy. The stem cell transplants thus become the way to restoring the production of blood cells that would otherwise cease in the absence of the undifferentiated cells. Not all the cancer patients require stem cell transplants. In fact, there are several elements that decide whether such an intervention is necessary or not, and here we can count the stage of the disease, its intensity, the patient’s responsiveness to the treatment and the overall physical condition.

In the past, only younger patients were chosen for stem cell transplants, but at present, age is no longer such a relevant criterion. What does indeed matter is the health of the internal organs such as kidneys, heart and lungs as well as the performance status in the cancer therapy. There are several kinds of stem cell transplants but only a few of them have reached a notorious status. And these include bone marrow transplants, peripheral stem cell blood transplants or cord blood transplants. There are other more scientific ways of separating stem cell transplants into further categories but they usually serve more for research purposes.