Video: Bone Marrow Transplantation

Sergio Giralt, Chief of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplantation Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, talks about bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of leukemia. First, high doses of radiation and/or chemotherapy are used to destroy abnormal bone marrow. Healthy bone marrow – from a donor whose tissue matches that of the patient, from the patient, or from umbilical cord blood – is then given via intravenous infusion. Researchers are working to identify genes that can indicate patients who will most benefit from the procedure.