Transplant basics
Understanding a bone marrow transplant
A transplant can be hard to picture, and the words around it can be confusing. These explainers follow the path from the first questions to finding a donor and the months after transplant day. Each one gives the answer at the top and lists its sources at the bottom.
Stage 1 · 3 explainers
The basics
What is a bone marrow transplant, and how does it work?
A bone marrow transplant replaces diseased or damaged blood-forming stem cells with healthy ones, given through a vein. The steps, timeline and risks.
What is an allogeneic stem cell transplant?
An allogeneic transplant uses stem cells from a donor: a sibling, a half-matched relative, a volunteer or cord blood. How it works, and its risks.
Stem cell vs bone marrow transplant: are they the same?
Mostly, yes. Both replace blood-forming stem cells. The name reflects where the cells were collected: the bone marrow, the bloodstream or cord blood.
Stage 2 · 3 explainers
Finding a donor
How does a donor search for a transplant work?
The team tests the patient’s tissue type, checks brothers and sisters, then searches registries worldwide. The steps, timing and why ancestry matters.
Haploidentical transplant: when a half-match can work
Using a half-matched relative as the donor: how a drug given after transplant made it safer, who can donate, and how results compare.
What is a cord blood transplant, and how does it work?
A cord blood transplant uses stem cells from a donated umbilical cord. How it is matched, why recovery is slower, and how parents can donate.
Stage 3 · 4 explainers
After transplant day
What is engraftment after a stem cell transplant?
Engraftment is when new stem cells settle in the marrow and start making blood. Typical timing, the counts doctors watch, and what graft failure means.
Recovery after a bone marrow transplant
Recovery after a bone marrow or stem cell transplant takes months to years. Engraftment, the first 100 days, infection, GVHD, caregivers and follow-up.
What is graft-versus-host disease (GVHD)?
GVHD happens when a donor’s immune cells attack the patient’s body after a donor transplant. Acute and chronic GVHD, prevention, treatments and daily life.
What is a donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI)?
A DLI gives more white blood cells from the same donor after a transplant to treat relapse or raise donor cells. Uses, risks and the donor’s role.
Stage 4 · 2 explainers
Other common questions
Does a bone marrow transplant change your DNA?
Partly. After a donor transplant, your blood and immune cells carry the donor’s DNA; most other cells keep yours. What that means for tests and family.
How much does a bone marrow transplant cost?
Estimated 2025 US billed charges for a donor transplant average about $1.26 million; insurers pay less. Who pays, what families pay and where to find help.
Keep learning
More in the library
Ways to help
Someone may be waiting for a match.
Many transplants use cells from a donor. When no relative matches, that donor is often a stranger who joined a registry.
Join the registry
JBF points you to the official registry that serves your country. It explains who can join and what donation involves.
Help someone you love find a donor
If someone you love needs a donor, our family guide explains practical ways to help. A registration drive can add many potential donors at once, for them and for others.
Support this work
Gifts to the Jada Bascom Foundation support donor-awareness education like this page, community outreach, drive planning and referrals to official registries.
