More than one million blood stem cell transplants have now taken place globally, campaigners have revealed.
The Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation believes the millionth transplant took place in December.
The campaigners say many people will find the number "surprising".
In the early years of stem cell transplants, when cells were extracted from donor bone marrow or close relatives, it was often difficult to find a match.
The procedure was developed in 1957 and the first transplant between two people who were not related took place in 1973 in New York. And the first transplant from umbilical cord blood took place in 1988 in Paris.
Network president Professor Dietger Niederwieser, from the University Hospital of Leipzig, Germany, said: "One million transplants is a milestone that may surprise many people, because blood stem cell transplants were viewed as a rare procedure until the last decade or so.
"But important discoveries—and the vital cooperation of many scientists and physicians around the world—have dramatically improved outcomes for patients who undergo stem cell transplantation."
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