What is an autologous bone marrow transplant and when is it used?

5 kind of Bone M T: Autologous transplant—transplanted cells come from the body of the transplant recipient. Allogeneic transplant—transplanted cells come from a donor who may be related to the recipient (a family member) or unrelated. The advantage to using the child’s own stem cells is that he or she will not face the complications of graft-versus-host disease. However, with an autologous transplant the child does.

High dose chemo: This is a treatment that uses very high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation to treat cancers. The doses are so high that the normal bone marrow is destroyed. The patient's own bone marrow or stem cells are then reinfused to allow the bone marrow to recover. It is used for certain cancers and some autoimmune diseases.