BMT - Lymphoma – Autologous

Autologous stem cell transplant is just the opposite of allogeneic stem cell transplant. The former uses the patient’s own healthy stem cells procured from the bone marrow and later re-infused in the blood, and the latter uses other person’s stem cells for re-infusion in the patient’s blood.

An autologous bone marrow transplant is a procedure to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Autologous transplants are used for the treatment of different types of cancers such as myeloma, leukemia, lymphoma and certain solid tumours. Osteosarcoma, testicular cancer and breast cancer are best treated with autologous transplant.

Stem cells are usually collected from the blood. Usually, the stem cells reside in the marrow, but a combination of granulocyte colony and chemotherapy are used to expand the stem cells residing in the marrow. This helps spill the stem cells into the circulating blood. Then, the stem cells are collected from the blood flowing in the body of the patient.

A special machine called separator is used to separate stem cells from the blood, which is then processed, frozen and stored until the date of the new transplant. Stem cell transplant for lymphoma is the only way to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma.