Bone marrow disorders
Even though the process of blood formation or “hematopoiesis” is very delicate and finely calibrated, since can go wrong for a multitude of reason because of the fact of the presence of stem cells. Stem cells can form virtually any cell and can be damaged easily. You can imagine them as a fragile marble block that can break easily with a wrong hammer stroke and has the potential to make any statue. Disorders of the bone marrow can be broadly classified as:
- Aplastic anemia
- Pancytopenia
- Malignancy
Since the bone marrow acts as a factory for the production of blood cells, the disorders are either due to decreased production -aplastic anemias if the product is red blood corpuscles and pancytopenia if all blood cells are affected- and cancers. Cancers that are found in the bone marrow can either be primary “leukemia” where they originated from the same cells of the bone marrow or secondaries “metastases” from other cancers that moved along the bloodstream and were dislodged in the bone marrow.