State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology conducts first successful paediatric allogeneic bone marrow transplant

The State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) has crossed a milestone by successfully completing the first paediatric matched sibling donor allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) on a 14-year-old patient.

The State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) has crossed a milestone by successfully completing the first paediatric matched sibling donor allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) on a 14-year-old patient.

The girl, Archana (name changed), suffering from acute myeloid leukemia (a type of blood cancer) was admitted to Kidwai hospital about two months ago. Her father is a daily wage labourer and mother is a garment factory worker, whose Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme was utilised for the girl’s cancer treatment.

Vasundhara Kailasnath, paediatric BMT physician at Kidwai, who along with a team of doctors performed the transplant, told The Hindu that the girl’s cancer was refractory. “This means her cancer was resistant to conventional chemotherapy and had a very high chance of relapse. She presented with fever and severe fatigue. Luckily for this teenager, her younger brother was a complete genetic match (12/12 HLA match) and the transplant was done on June 12. The girl was discharged on Friday,” the doctor said.

“We had to give her a high dose of chemotherapy before conducting the allogeneic BMT using the stem cells from her younger brother. While it usually takes 14-21 days for the stem cells to regenerate, in her case we achieved 100% success in 14 days. This is the first such transplant being done in a government set-up in the State,” Dr. Kailasnath said.

Discharging the patient at Kidwai in the presence of Archana’s parents and the team of doctors, Sharan Prakash Patil, Medical Education and Skill Development Minister, said the the transplant was successful and the girl is currently disease-free.

The Minister said usually, in private hospitals, the cost of autologous transplants range from ₹7 lakh to ₹15 lakh and allogeneic BMTs cost about ₹15 lakh to ₹45 lakh. “KMIO has been successful in providing these BMTs at almost free of cost to patients by utilising the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, SCP/TSP scheme, ESI, and CGHS schemes. In this case, the entire cost was covered under the ESI scheme,” he said.

Kidwai administrator N. Manjushree said the need of the hour was to make BMT services easily available, accessible, and affordable to the diseased and vulnerable population of the State.