Leukemia 

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Today, stem cell therapy is used to treat thousands of patients with leukemia worldwide. Leukemia is a general term used to describe different cancers of the blood. In these cancers, the production of white blood cells is too high, and they do not mature normally.  These cells are not able to fight infections and diseases like normal mature blood cells. This makes leukemia a fatal threat if it is not treated successfully. The most successful method up to date of killing leukaemic cells is high-dose chemotherapy. Unofrtunately, the chemotherapy damages the normal blood-forming cells that are found in the bone marrow. Haematopoietic stem cell transplants are performed to replace these cells.  This type of transplant, though, is very risky, and the transplanted cells can be rejected by the patient's immune system. Research is still ongoing to improve understanding of leukemia and how to treat it.

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