With recent advancements in medical technology, certain Blood disorders which were considered fatal earlier, like Acute Leukemia, Multiple Myeloma, Aplastic Anemia, Thalassemia Major, sickle cell disease and several other cancers can now be successfully treated with BMT. BMT Procedures have a much better success ratio where conventional therapies like chemotherapy and radiotherapy have a lower success rate. Blood cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer that affects the quality of life. In an endeavour to raise awareness on the timely diagnosis of the disease along with the available treatment options and make the public aware about the timely treatment modalities available at Fortis Gurugram, Fortis Gurugram has been running its OPD services and awareness sessions for the last 4 years in Hissar.
During the last four years of OPD services for blood related disorders, More than 1280 people from the region have availed the OPD Services, out of which 40% of them (over 500 people) have been diagnosed with some form of blood cancer. Of the total people being diagnosed in the past 4 years, 20 patients have successfully undergone a bone marrow transplant, while others (diagnosed in the initial stages) have been cured with the help of medications.
Patients who underwent successful BMT were also present during the awareness session, including 46-year-old Mrs Kanta Devi from Hisar who successfully underwent BMT for Multiple myeloma, 40-year-old Mrs Kamna Dhamija from Gurugram underwent Haplo BMT for Myeloid Leukemia, and 16-year-old Master Abhishek from Charki Dadri who was successfully treated with BMT for Severe Aplastic Anemia. All the patients shared their journey and explained how the hematology team at Fortis Hospital Gurugram helped them fight the illness.
Dr. Meet Pritamchand Kumar, Senior Consultant Adult Hemato-Oncology & BMT, Fortis Hospital, Gurugram said "During the last four years, our team has observed that lot of people are suffering from some form of blood disorders, including the children. Of the total people attending the OPD's majority of them were diagnosed with Aplastic anemia, thalassemia, sickle cell anemia. Bone Marrow Transplant is the only curative treatment available till date for such disorders. We need to conduct a HLA test of the patients and sibling, to see whether they are an ideal match (there is a 25 to 30 % chance that a sibling would be a complete match to the patient on HLA). For the rest of the patients, unrelated donor search is adopted in which donor is taken through international and national stem cell registries. If the patient does not get a donor from the family, then we can conduct a half match transplant (haploidentical transplant) - where either father or mother becomes the donor."
Dr Meet further elaborated "With advancements made in the field of hematology and stem cell transplantation, Bone marrow transplants (BMT) are emerging as the best life saviors for even incurable and potentially fatal disorders. Bone marrow is the soft fatty tissues inside the bones that proliferates into blood cells. The procedure is classified into two types – Allogenic (any donor with tissue match) and Autologous (where stem cells are taken from same body. During a typical BMT the damaged or destroyed bone marrow needs to be replaced with healthy ones and the major restricting factor lies in the matching of the donor cells. But with recent advancements, haplo-identical transplantations where if the donor's tissue matches 50% or more half identical, the procedure can be successfully done. This procedure has virtually eliminated the waiting period for many patients awaiting a BMT on urgent basis."
"Earlier many patients suffering from leukemia and lymphoma had to wait for a complete tissue match to undergo which would result in progression of the disease and proven to be fatal. In recent years, there have been dramatic breakthroughs in the field of haematology and stem cell transplant, the latest being treatment through haploidentical transplantation technique that eliminates the wait time for the ones in immediate need of bone marrow transplants. But with complete research and significant improvement in T-cell depletion along with immunosuppressant drugs, success rates through BMT have seen successful clinical outcomes." Said Management
