Bone Marrow Failure And Its Treatment

Bone marrow is a soft spongy material, which is present in the bones. They are highly found in big bones of the hip and thighs. The key function of bone marrow is to generate new blood cells which are important for normal human functioning. These may include RBC, WBC, and platelets.  

Bone marrow failure is a medical condition under which the bone marrow is not able to reproduce the required number of cells for the body. There can be specific causes that affect your bone marrow - 

• Fanconi anemia

• Shwachman Diamond syndrome

• Dyskeratosis congenital

• GATA2-related disorders

• Diamond Blackfan anemia

• SAMD9/SAMD9L-related disorders

• Aplastic anemia.

• Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)

• Leukemia and solid tumor cancers.

While some of the reasons develop under genetic mutations other might develop under certain medical conditions. Its course of treatment purely depends on the root cause of the disease. 

Treatment of bone marrow includes blood transfusion and stem cell transplant. 

Blood transfusion - it is used in case a person has a very low cell count. Blood transfusion helps the patient to stabilize its blood levels. This is a temporary solution that is used in case a person is severely ill or has a genetic disorder that cannot be cured. 

Stem cell transplant - Unlike blood transfusion, stem cell transplant works on bone marrow growth. Under this process, the fresh blood stem cells is been transplanted into your blood which stimulates the growth of new bone marrow cells. The stem cells are taken from the tissue identical doner and then transferred to the patient. This procedure is effective for both genetic and non-genetic mutation cases. 

But before the major part of the treatment can take place, your doctors will conduct conditioning therapy. This therapy includes chemotherapy or radiation that will help you remove infected bone marrow cells and suppress your immune system in order to make space for the new cells without any major reaction. This helps the stem cells to infuse in the body without any major reaction. 

Even though the therapeutics are a success for treating bone marrow failure. The major side effect of undergoing conditioning therapy is it suppresses your immune system. This can also make your body more vulnerable to other forms of foreign pathogens. And since the procedure runs for almost two to four weeks, suppressed immunity can be very damaging for an individual.