The type of transplant a patient receives is determined by the patients physician and medical team. Several factors including type of disease, stage of disease, previous response to treatment, donor status (availability), age and general health will be considered when making this decision.

Autologous Transplant

A bone marrow transplant may be performed using a patients own marrow/stem cells, an autologous transplant. Autologous transplant is often indicated when the disease being treated has no involvement in the bone marrow or if the disease is in remission. (click here to view diseases treated by autologous transplant). The bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells are collected prior to transplant. Collection may coincide with recovery from standard chemotherapy. 

A technique known as purging is often used with autologous transplant. Purging involves using one of two techniques to remove or decrease the number of potentially known or unknown cancerous cell that may be present at the time of collection. The rationale for purging is such that by decreasing the number of cancerous cells in the bone marrow the possibility (risk) of relapse after an autologous transplant is also decreased. 

Allogeneic Transplant

Allogeneic transplant is when the stem cells come from someone other than the patient. There are two types of allogeneic transplant. They are related allogeneic transplant, when the donor is a blood relative, usually a sibling, or an unrelated allogeneic transplant, when the donor is someone unknown to the patient. Some centers may perform an autologous collection, known as a back-up harvest, in the event of certain clinical circumstances.