A bone marrow biopsy is generally suggested when a doctor suspects blood disorders. If a complete blood count finds abnormal situations of the red and white blood cells or indicates some other disease a bone marrow biopsy will help to evaluate the situation better.
The procedure is also accompanied by bone marrow aspiration. Bone marrow typically grows inside the larger bones of the body and is a spongy tissue and fluid. Here, stem cells make red and white blood cells and platelets.
When the function of the bone marrow needs to be observed a doctor will carry out a bone marrow biopsy.
What it helps to establish is the count of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets whether they are high or low.
The information from this can help to evaluate the situation in certain blood disorders.
A bone marrow biopsy helps to diagnose the existence of tumors, the staging of diseases such as lymphoma, and to ascertain how effective chemotherapy is during treatment.
The procedure can be carried out in a doctor’s office or at a hospital using a local anesthetic on the skin.
The patient should keep the doctor informed about his medical history and what medication he is on, if any. Information should also be provided about allergies to medication or bleeding issues.
The doctor may prefer to do the bone marrow aspiration first in which an aspirate needle is put into the bone marrow and liquid bone marrow is withdrawn using a syringe.
Usually, a sample of bone marrow is taken from the hip bone. After the aspiration, the biopsy needle will be inserted into the bone and a piece of the core of the bone marrow is forced into the needle.
To stop the bleeding, pressure and a bandage will be applied. There is unlikely to be continuous bleeding or infection of the site but if there are any complications then the doctor should be immediately informed.
The aspiration will give information about the bone marrow cells while the biopsy will give an idea of the structure of the bone marrow.
This is a delicate procedure so great care is taken while performing it. There will be the quick pain of the anesthetic being given and during aspiration and biopsy there may be some pain.
Since the site is a bone, the inside of which cannot be anesthetized, patients may undergo some uneasiness. The patient can have a sedative if they think they need it but for this they must be accompanied.
After the procedure the doctor may recommend some painkillers for a few days as the hip bone is likely to ache for a while.
The bone marrow usually has the correct types and numbers of normal blood cells. So if an abnormality is detected it could be because of leukemia, anemia, neuroblastoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and a few others.
What Exactly Happens in Bone Marrow Transplant to Treat Cancer
Bone Marrow is sponge like material found particularly inside the pelvic bones. Bone marrow produces the cells which develop into the three different types of blood cells namely, RBC, WBC and Platelets.
Function of RBC is to reach oxygen to all the parts of body. WBC helps to fight infection and platelets helps prevent clots and bleeding.
Bone marrow transplants is a type of treatment for many different types of cancer, but they are most frequently used for leukemia or lymphomas. Bone marrow transplants can happen int two ways, either the patient’s own bone marrow may be used or there may be a donor, medical term for it is Allogeneic transplants.
In case of Allogeneic transplants the donor involved is a close and blood relative like a brother or sister whose bone marrow matches with the patients. Occasionally an exact math can also be found in someone unrelated also.
When a bone marrow transplant is required first the patient’s own bone marrow is destroyed with the help of high doses of chemotherapy, many a times combined with radiotherapy.
After completion of this procedure new bone marrow is injected through drip. The new bone marrow takes some time to settle into the new body and start performing its normal function again.
This is the period when the patient is under medical care and observation 24X7. They are at a high risk of infection. It is a crucial period as the new bone marrow is getting used to the new body and trying to perform its functions.
The doctors may be giving antibiotics and the patient may require blood transfusion.
Next six months after bone marrow transplant are important, and regular visits to doctor for a checkup are a must.
This to keep a check for the cancer cells not coming back or re-developing. Graft-versus-host disease is a name given to the symptom where the bone marrow injected starts reacting inside the body.
Symptoms of graft-versus-host disease may be diarrhea, skin rashes and jaundice. Under normal circumstances drugs will be prescribed after the transplant to prevent graft-versus-host disease from developing.
Coming to the second type of transplant i.e. when the patient’s own bone marrow is used.
The first step here is to collect healthy bone marrow from person’s own body. Then it’s injected through the drip. And again one is in the medical observation in the hospital until the bone marrow settles down and starts functioning as it is supposed to.
After being discharged the patient has to keep coming back for general check ups to see if the cancer cells are not developing again.
