Understanding Transplantation

Finding a cure

Understanding Transplantation

Sometimes people get very sick with diseases like leukemia or other serious blood problems. For them, one of the best treatments is a blood stem cell transplant. This works by replacing the patient’s unhealthy blood cells with healthy ones from a donor — kind of like giving their blood system a “reset.”

How it Works

Collection: Doctors take the healthy stem cells from a donor. These cells can come from: bone marrow, blood or umbilical cord blood (from babies right after birth)
Transplantation: The collected stem cells are given to the patient through a vein — it feels a lot like getting a blood transfusion
Engraftment: The new stem cells travel to the patient’s bone marrow, where they start producing new blood cells, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets

This is not an easy treatment, and it comes with risks. That’s why a special medical team takes care of the patient before, during, and after the transplant. But for many people, a stem cell transplant is their best — or only — chance to survive and get healthy again.

The patient journey

Step 1: Diagnosis & Planning

Doctors first check if a transplant is the best treatment. There are two main types:

Autologous transplant: the patient’s own stem cells are collected, saved, and then given back after treatment.
Allogeneic transplant: the stem cells come from a donor. First, doctors see if a brother or sister is a match (this works about 25% of the time). If not, they search a global database to find another matching donor.

Step 2: Finding a Donor

WMDA helps doctors search for the right match.

Millions of volunteers and cord blood units are in the worldwide database.
Smart matching tools help find the best possible donor.
Only trained doctors and medical teams can use this system.

Once a possible donor is found:

The donor is contacted and asked if they’re still willing.
They go through health checks.
If everything looks good, the donor’s stem cells are collected.

Step 3: Preparing for the Transplant

Step 4: The Transplant

Step 5: Recovery

The Role of WMDA

Risks of transplantation

Getting a bone marrow, blood stem cell, or cord blood transplant is a big medical procedure. Like all medical treatments, it’s not 100% risk-free. That’s why patients always talk to their transplant doctor about the possible risks before starting. Thanks to doctors, nurses, and scientists working together and sharing research, transplants are becoming safer and more successful every year.

Infections: After a transplant, the patient’s immune system is very weak. This makes it easier to get infections from bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Infections can be serious, but the risk goes down as the immune system gets stronger again.

Graft vs. Host Disease: Sometimes, the new donor cells don’t just fight disease — they also attack the patient’s own body. This is called GvHD. It can be mild, but in some cases it’s very serious. You can read more on the following website, click here.

Acute GvHD: happens within the first 3 months.
Chronic GvHD: happens after the first 3 months.

Graft failure: This means the new donor cells don’t work the way they should. It can happen if:

The patient’s immune system rejects the new cells
Not enough healthy cells were transplanted
The transplanted cells got damaged by infection or other causes

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