Bangalore : The Bone Marrow Transplant Team at Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center at NH Health City successfully treated relapsed leukemia through ‘Haploidentical Bone Marrow transplant’ on a 4-year-old girl with a new technique of in-vivo T Cell Deplation. In case of relapsed leukemia, Bone Marrow Transplant is the only option where the bone marrow is taken from the sibling or an unrelated donor whose stem cells match. In this case, since Sania*, a four-year-old was the only child (with no matched sibling) and her parents were economically challenged, they could not afford a donor from outside India. Dr. Sunil Bhat, Consultant, Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation from Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center thus decided to go ahead with the half matched stem cell (Haploidentical) from her father and went ahead with the treatment.

Dr. Sunil Bhat, Consultant, Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow transplantation, Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center, NH Health City said, “Finding an unrelated donor is a challenge in India and getting it from another country is not financially viable for most patients. There is a need to create awareness about the Haploidentical transplant wherein the parent or half matched sibling of the patient can be the donor.”

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. It causes white blood cells (also called leukocytes) to develop abnormally. White blood cells are made in the bone marrow and their main job is to defend the body against infection and disease. Sania* underwent treatment for Leukemia about eight months back, however unfortunately it had relapsed. Bone marrow or stem cell transplant was the only curative option for her. She was brought to the advanced therapeutic unit at Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre and treated with Bone Marrow Transplant.

Dr. Sharat Damodar, Senior Consultant Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant, Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center, NH Health City said, “Bone marrow transplantation is a procedure in which leukemia or faulty marrow is destroyed by high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy and restored with donor stem cells”.

The father of the girl who is the donor expressing his gratitude to the hospital and especially to Dr.Sunil Bhatsaid, “I had lost all hopes for my daughter because we did not have any options. We searched for many hospitals on the internet and found that Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre has a Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and the specialists required to treat such a disease.”

Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center at NH Health City is a tertiary care facility and has state-of-the-art stem cell and India’s largest Bone Marrow Transplant unit. It has conducted the largest number of stem cell transplants till date in Karnataka. The department is staffed with doctors of international repute who are highly skilled and experienced in their field.

Source : Juhii Chauhan