Storage and transplantation of bone marrow in the treatment of malignant diseases

The development of special methods of bone marrow transplantation, coupled with new knowledge in the area of donor‐recipient selection and the suppression of the secondary diseases, has generated renewed interest in allografting of bone marrow for a variety of diseases. The interest in marrow allotransplantation has overshadowed previously existing interest in autotransplantation despite the fact that autotransplantation has not met with serious side effects, such as GVH and secondary diseases. Sufficient evidence demonstrating the reliability of methods of short‐term and long‐term storage of human bone marrow has now been accumulated. It can be anticipated that reinfusion of bone marrow stored by these methods will result in uniform hematopoetic recovery of bone marrow suppressed by irradiation or chemotherapeutic agents. In cases of malignant diseases in anticipation of future needs, disease‐free marrow can be collected before the malignant process becomes generalized. Since bone marrow is best obtained under general anesthesia, routine bone marrow collection and storage from patients undergoing surgery for specific malignancies is suggested.