Does a stem cell transplant attack cancer directly?

Usually not. Stem cell transplants do not typically work against cancer directly.

Instead, they restore your body's ability to produce new blood cells after treatment with very high doses of chemotherapy, and sometimes radiation, that are used to destroy the cancer cells. In other words, the transplant makes it possible to use those high doses by rebuilding your blood-forming cells afterward.

There is one important exception. In leukemia, a transplant that uses donor stem cells may work against cancer directly through an effect called graft-versus-tumor (or graft-versus-leukemia). This happens when white blood cells from your donor attack any cancer cells that remain in your body, which improves the chance the transplant succeeds.

Your care team can explain what role a transplant would play in your specific treatment.