A stem cell transplant can treat — and sometimes cure — certain blood disorders, cancers and autoimmune diseases. The procedure replaces unhealthy stem cells with healthy ones. Your provider might get healthy stem cells from your own bone marrow. Or they might use donated stem cells from another person., In blood and marrow transplants, the donor stem cells are retrieved through a bone marrow harvest that is performed through a surgical procedure with anesthesia. In peripheral blood stem cell transplants, the donor stem cells are retrieved from the peripheral blood, which is collected through a simple outpatient process called apheresis., When the stem cells come from the bone marrow, the procedure may be called a bone marrow transplant, or BMT. When they come from cord blood, the procedure may be called a cord blood transplant. Once they enter your bloodstream, the stem cells travel to the bone marrow, where they take the place of the cells that were destroyed by treatment., , , .