The State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology has successfully conducted its first Autologous Stem Cell transplantation on an eight-year-old boy from Tumkuru.
The patient, Jeevan Kumar, had been diagnosed with Refractory Hodgkins Lymphoma, S4, nine months ago. The transplantation was done on April 28 and the patient was discharged on Monday.
A team of doctors comprising Vasundhara Kailasnath, Linu Jacob, Smitha Saldanha and Gayatri from the Bone Marrow Transplantation unit at the hospital performed the surgery. The unit was inaugurated on February 15 on the occasion of International Childhood Cancer Day.
“We initially collected the healthy stem cells from the patient and cyropreserved (a process in which the cells are stored at minus 80 degree celsius). Subsequently, the patient was given high dose chemotherapy to kill the residual cancer cells and the stored stem cells were transfused back into the patient. This procedure is called Autologous Stem Cell transplantation,” said Dr. Kailasnath.
“The entire process has taken about 20-24 days and the patient has done well through the procedure. Autologous Stem Cell transplantation enables us to give very dose chemotherapy to the patient,” she said.
“We have 12 rooms plus five ICU beds in the transplantation unit. In the next four months, we will be ready to take up allogenic bone marrow transplanation for which about 15 patients are in the waitlist,” Dr. Kailasnath added.
Institute Director C. Ramachandra said the expensive procedure was done free of cost for the patient. “About 20 patients have been lined up for this procedure and the next patient will be taken up within a week,” he said.
