Guwahati: Dr.
B Boroah Cancer Institute (BBCI) here has transplanted the first bone marrow (BMT) at the Public Sector Hospital in the Northeast.
A multiple myeloma patient, a type of blood cancer, successfully underwent autologous stem cell transplants, commonly known as BMT in the Premier Cancer Care Hospital here.
“This is the first case of bone marrow transplants in public sector hospitals throughout the northeast.
Patients are a 58-year-old man from Nalbari, who underwent treatment at the BBCI, involving several procedures from July 11.
The patient reached the endraftment on 29 July, “The BBCI confirms in a statement on Saturday morning.
The BBCI Director Dr.
Amal Chandra Kataki explained that the bone marrow transplant was a medical procedure in which stem cells collected from the bone marrow were transplanted to patients after the right conditioning treatment.
“It can be autologous where marrow stem cells themselves are moved, or alogenic, where other people’s stem cells, which are genetically suitable for patients, used,” he said.
Kataki said this highly sophisticated medical procedure was the work of the team that needed several specialties and infrastructure, and put all the things in one place was an extraordinary achievement.
The doctor’s team, led by the medical oncology department, with support from the pathology department, transplants.
The lack of Affordable BMT facilities previously previously forced hundreds of patients from Assam and other northeastern states to seek treatment outside the area.
“The cost of transplantation procedures here is 60 to 70% lower than the private sector hospital in the country,” added Kataki, with a special mention of Dr.
Nabajyoti Choudhury, a transfusion medical specialist, which also offers technical support when collecting.
stem cells.
Dr.
Asif Iqbal, Associate Professor Division Hemato-Oncology in BBCI, said that BMT involves several steps such as mobilization (procedures for releasing bone marrow stem cells into the blood), apheresis (procedures for extracting car cells), conditioning (dose The thought of chemotherapy that serves to remove residual tumor cells), and finally transplants (infusion of cells collected).
Iqbal, who received training in BMT services in the treatment center, research and sophisticated education in Mumbai, said in 2019, more than 200 BMT cases were referred to other parts of the Northeast.
He, however, said that the actual number of patients who needed BMT in the region would be higher.
Many of them cannot bear the cost of the procedure.
Even then, because the time consuming process and expertise, the best hospital in the country in Vellore and Mumbai can do nearly 50 to 60 such transplants, Iqbal added.
“There is a very large lack of facilities where BMT is done in this country.
In BBCI, we are now in a position to do one BMT every month and 12 throughout the year,” he said.