New Delhi: BLK Super Speciality Hospital has achieved another milestone by crossing 1000 Bone Marrow Transplants. BLK Centre for BMT has emerged as Asia’s largest BMT unit and has completed the fastest 1,000 bone marrow transplant in Northern India.
Najm Aldeen (1yr) 1000th patient, from Yemen who marked his presence in the conference along with his family to share his story of successful treatment. Mr. Nasir Saleh, Grandfather of Najm said “we are thankful to BLK Super Speciality Hospital and Dr. Dharma for giving a new lease of life to our child”. Najm was suffering from Thalassemia major by birth and got his 100% match unrelated donor through a voluntary international registry in Germany.
Credited for performing hundreds of high risks transplants, Dr Dharma Choudhary, Senior Consultant & Director, Centre for Hemato-oncology & Bone Marrow Transplant, BLK Super Speciality Hospital said, “With Bone Marrow Transplants, we are successfully curing incurable diseases like Leukaemia, Myeloma, Thalassemia and also improving the quality of life for the patients. It has emerged as an innovative option to fight critical and life-threatening diseases. Performing a large number of transplants provides us with an edge to make the life-saving medical procedure safer and more effective for patients.”
Piyush Joshi, the 1st patient underwent Bone Marrow Transplant in 2010 was also present on the occasion to share his testimony of 10 years post transplant. Pushpa Joshi, mother of Piyush said, “We were scared earlier to know about the disease but after the transplant now it’s almost 10 years and Piyush is perfectly fine and leading a normal life and going to school just like another children. We are thankful to Dr. Dharma for the same.”
Not only kids but even the elderly got a new lease of life with state of the art BMT facility. Dina Nath Ahuja (74) who was diagnosed as Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in 2017 underwent BMT. He is currently more than 2 years post-transplant and leukaemia free.
Mrs. Sharda Kohli (70) also underwent BMT for Leukaemia seven years ago, narrated their pre and post BMT life and expressed gratitude to experts for giving them a new lease of life.
According to Dr. Chaudhary, “Haemopoietic Stem Cell is sourced from Bone Marrow (BM), Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC) and Placental Umbilical cord Blood (P-UCB). Bone Marrow Transplant is a Medical Procedure under Cellular Therapy which includes Allogeneic Transplants (HLA match most important), Blood group need not match, Matched Sibling, the Best match for major and minor antigens. Another form of the procedure is Autologous transplant and Cord Blood Transplant. It is promising to note that Matched Unrelated-donor registeries now have over 10 million donors.”
Achieving a milestone by performing over 1,000 Bone Marrow Transplants during the last decade, BLK Super Specialty Hospital’s Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant today also released the data related to types of transplant procedures and treatment of critical diseases such as Leukaemia, Thalassemia and Myeloma. Data shows the majority of patients who underwent BMT were suffering from Leukaemia, Thalassemia and Myeloma.
As per Data released by the Centre, during 2010-2019, the Centre performed 1020 BMT procedures which included treatment of 228 acute Leukaemia, 223 Thalassemia major, 189 multiple Myeloma, 114 severe aplastic anaemia, 103 lymphomas among others.
Out of these, 740 were Allogenic transplants with 547 Match Related donors and 28 Match Unrelated donors including two cord blood transplants. The Centre also performed 280 Autologous transplants where the blood stem cells from one’s own body are taken out and given back after very high doses of chemotherapy. Nearly 160 Haploidentical transplant was yet another achievement.
The patients who underwent the procedures during the last decade admitted that the BMT gave them normal active life again. Experts underlined the critical role of Bone Marrow Transplant as a curative option for several critical diseases such as Cancer and Thalassemia.
“Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is the only cure but non-availability of a suitable HLA matched donor, inherent high risk of the procedure restricts its practicality. However, the availability of highly trained transplant experts and quality care have well-equipped us to handle a large number of rare procedures,” Dr Choudhary added.
Piyush Joshi a 2 year old presented in BLK in the year 2010. He was suffering from Thalassemia major and was on transfusion support. He had HLA identical elder sister. He underwent Allogenic bone marrow transplant on 1st Feb, 2010. He accepted his sister bone marrow without any complication. Presently, he is 10 years post transplant and continuing his normal school life like other children.
Patient Najm Aldeen is a 1 year old male from Yemen was suffering from Thalassemia major by birth. He does not had any full matched donor in his siblings and family. He came to BLK SSH for further treatment. We found a 100% matched unrelated donor through a voluntary international registry from Germany . He underwent successful matched unrelated donor transplant. Currently he is 3 months post transplant and doing well.
Elderly
Mr. Dina Nath Ahuja 74 years, an elderly male gentleman diagnosed as Acute Myeloid Leukemia at BLK SSH on 31/10/2017. He was treated with low intensity chemotherapy (Decitabine) because of his advanced age. He did not respond to this and we decided to give standard chemotherapy protocol. He achieved remission and subsequently underwent allogenic stem cell transplant using her HLA identical sister as a donor. He is currently more than 2 years post transplant and leukemia free.
Mrs Sharda Kohli, presented in 2013 at age 63, a case of Relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She was initially treated with low intensity chemotherapy at BLK Super Speciality Hospital but did not respond. We gave her standard chemotherapy regimen and subsequently she underwent transplant, using her sister’s marrow as she was a full match donor. Currently, she is 7 years post transplant and living a healthy life like others.
