By Barbara Bronson Gray HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 17 (HealthDay News) -- For people whose bone marrow has been destroyed by chemotherapy, radiation or disease, stem cell transplants offer a potential lifeline back to health.

But a key question has remained unanswered: Is it better to get the stem cells from a donor's blood or from bone marrow?

Now, a new study evaluates the pros and cons of harvesting stem cells from bone marrow rather than blood and suggests there are benefits to both approaches, but no survival differences between the two methods. The research was published Oct. 18 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study found that while peripheral blood stem cells may reduce the risk of graft failure, bone marrow may cut the chances of developing chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a complication that is frequently debilitating.

Over the past 10 years, 75 percent of stem cell transplants from unrelated adult donors have used peripheral blood stem cells rather than those harvested from bone marrow, according to study background information.

Some studies have suggested that using peripheral blood cells rather than bone marrow was associated with more severe GVHD. Other research has found that some people with transplants from peripheral blood stem cells had a lower relapse rate and improved survival.

Bone marrow offers the same chances of survival as does peripheral blood but tends to be associated with more severe side effects of treatment, explained study author Dr. Claudio Anasetti, a professor of medicine at the University of South Florida.

"With bone marrow, you have the same survival, but less long-term morbidity," Anasetti said.

Anasetti said the research shows that both approaches are acceptable, but "it's not a one-choice-for-all situation."

Read more from the original source:
Blood or Bone Marrow Better for Stem Cell Transplants?