Medical Minute: Bone Marrow Harvesting

OhioHealth has successfully completed its first-ever bone marrow harvesting procedure, a landmark moment for the organization's Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy program. 

"We collect bone marrow from a donor, usually a sibling donor,” said Basem William, MD, clinical director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant program and medical director of the Cell Therapy Laboratory and Immune Effector Cell Program at OhioHealth and John P. McConnell Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. “We take them to the operating room. They get general anesthesia, they lie on their belly and in about an hour, we pull a liter of marrow out of their hip bone and their pelvic bone. And that would go into the recipient.”

Although using a patient's own marrow has largely been phased out, donors can be unrelated individuals registered with the National Marrow Donor Program. However, OhioHealth has not yet begun those procedures, Dr. William said.

While bone marrow harvesting is a critical component of stem cell recovery, it is not the only method available. 

“Actually, the more popular method we use now is collection of peripheral blood stem cells,” Dr. William said. “And this is what we use for about 90 percent of our allogeneic transplant, which is transplant from another person to the patient … But there are certain clinical scenarios where collecting the bone marrow would be advantageous.”

One of the key considerations in the bone marrow harvesting process is the timing of the transplant. 

"With bone marrow harvests, we try to transplant the cells on the same day, because usually freezing the bone marrow is technically more challenging than freezing peripheral blood stem cells. So in most instances, we infuse it into the patient on the same day,” Dr. William said.

For the recipients of these stem cells, the journey continues with a hospital stay of about two to three weeks for recovery. As for the donor, Dr. William assured that the process is relatively smooth.

"The donor himself is taken to the recovery room, and they usually are able to go home the same day and just be on light work for another week, and then there will be a full recovery. It’s a total outpatient procedure,” he said.

Those interested in supporting the cause or learning more about the National Marrow Donor Program can visit BeTheMatch.org.

To learn more about OhioHealth’s Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy program, click here.