All bone marrow transplants have risks. The risk is higher or lower depending on many factors. Some of these factors are:

• What disease you have
• What type of treatment (chemotherapy, radiation) you have before the bone marrow transplant
• How old you are
• How healthy you are when you have your transplant
• How good a match your donor is
• What type of bone marrow transplant patient you are having (autologous, allogeneic, or umbilical cord blood)

Complications you may have are:

• Infections: These may be very serious.
• Bleeding: This can happen in the lungs, the intestines, brain, and any other part of the body.
• Anemia
• Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
• Pain
• Severe mucositis (inflammation and soreness) in the mouth, throat, esophagus, and stomach
• Damage to the kidneys, liver, lungs, and heart
• Cataracts
• Early menopause
• Graft failure, which means that the new cells do not settle into the body and start producing stem cells
• Graft-versus-host disease: This is when your donor’s cells attack your own body. In the first few months after the transplant, symptoms may be a skin rash, diarrhea, or abnormal liver tests. Later, symptoms may be dry eyes or mouth, tightness of the skin, scarring in the lungs, chronic diarrhea, and other problems.
• Children who get transplants may have delayed growth.