First paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant completed at Kidwai

In another milestone, the State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology successfully completed its first paediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) for Thalassemia.

In another milestone, the State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology successfully completed its first paediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) for Thalassemia.

The patient, a seven-year-old, the son of a farmer from Kalaburagi, was diagnosed with Beta Thalassemia Major. He has been on monthly blood transfusions since he was six months old.

Thalassemia Major is a severe, inherited blood disorder that causes low levels of hemoglobin. While red blood cell production is less, the destruction of cells is high. BMT in older children and adults with thalassemia is a very complex procedure as chances of rejection are high.

Fortunately for the boy Santosh (name changed), his older sister was a complete genetic (12/12) HLA match. Pediatric Hematologist and BMT physician Vasundhara Kailasnath said the boy was a high-risk case (Pesaro class 3). He had liver enlargement due to iron overload. “To ensure a successful BMT, we had to give him two cycles of immunosuppressive chemotherapy followed by intravenous iron chelation for 45- 50 days,” she said.

Stating that it took over 40 days for the paediatric matched sibling donor allogeneic BMT process to be completed, the doctor said the boy was put on a high dose of chemotherapy in addition to immunotherapy.  “The stem cells collected from his donor sister were transplanted in the patient the same day. It took 14 days for the cells to grow in his body and by the end of 30 days, a chimerism test showed 100% donor cells in the recipient indicating success,” she said.

The patient was discharged after 45 days of the transplant on Friday in the presence of Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil. 

The Minister, who commended the team of doctors for their achievement in performing the transplant, emphasised the need for making BMT services more accessible and affordable for economically weaker sections of society.