Who Needs Bone Marrow Tests?

You may need bone marrow tests if your doctor suspects that you have a blood or bone marrow disease or condition. These diseases and conditions include:

• Myelodysplastic (MI-e-lo-dis-PLAST-ik) syndrome. This is a group of diseases in which your bone marrow doesn't make enough normal blood cells.
• Neutropenia (NU-tro-PE-ne-ah). This is a condition in which you have a lower than normal number of white blood cells in your blood.
• Anemia (uh-NEE-me-eh). This is a condition in which you have a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or the red blood cells don't have enough of an iron-rich protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Bone marrow tests also are used to diagnose aplastic anemia. This is a rare and serious condition in which bone marrow stops making enough new blood cells.
• Myelofibrosis. This is a serious bone marrow disorder that disrupts normal production of blood cells and leads to severe anemia.
• Thrombocytopenia (THROM-bo-si-to-PE-ne-ah). This group of conditions occurs when your body doesn't make enough platelets and your blood doesn't clot as it should.
• Essential thrombocythemia (THROM-bo-si-THE-me-ah). This is a disease in which your bone marrow makes too many blood cells, especially platelets.
• Leukemia. This is a cancer of the white blood cells. Types of leukemia include acute and chronic leukemias and multiple myeloma.

You also may need bone marrow tests if you have other types of cancer. These may include breast cancer that has spread to the bone or Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (which are cancers of a particular type of white blood cell).

Bone marrow tests help show what stage the cancer is in. That is, the tests help doctors know how serious the cancer is and how much it has spread in the body.

Bone marrow tests also can show what's causing a fever. The tests may be used for people who have diseases in which their immune systems aren't working properly. They're also used for patients who may have uncommon bacterial infections.