What diseases require blood stem cell transplants?

A partial or total breakdown of the hematopoietic system in the body’s bone marrow or the growth of pathological cells rapidly leads to life-threatening diseases, such as serious disorders of the immune system owing to a deficiency of white blood cells, bleeding due to a deficiency of blood platelets, or anaemia as a result of a deficiency of red blood cells.

The most well-known disease of the bone marrow is leukaemia, frequently also referred to as “cancer of the blood”. Leukaemia is classified as either acute or chronic, with numerous sub-categories of the disease. Apart from that, there are also other malignant diseases (e.g. lymphomas, myelomas, other diseases of the blood etc.) and a large number of functional disorders (anaemia, immune deficiencies, certain inherited metabolic disorders in children).

Every year in Switzerland alone more than 700 children and adults contract
leukaemia or other serious diseases of the bone marrow. For many of these patients, being transplanted with blood stem cells is the only hope for cure.