HCG performs Asia's first bloodless BMT

The hospital running a chain of cancer hospitals, including the Bharath Cancer Hospital in Mysore is now said to be only second Oncology centre in the world to perform such an operation after Centre for Bloodless Medicine at Pennsylvania in the United States of America.

And, the patient treated under bloodless bone marrow transplant is Curtis Carpenter, a 60 year old man from the the US.

The treatment for Lymphoma was done through BMT without blood transfusion.

Complexity

Explaining the complex prototype, Dr Radheshyam Nayak, specialist in BMT with HCG told reporters that Curtis Carpenter had a history of lymphoma and was treated in the US in the past.

Recurrence

Due to recurrence, the cancerous cells had spread to bone marrow. The patient was a follower of Jehovah’s Witness (a sect in Christianity), and hence refused to undergo blood transfusion.

“BMT was carried out on Carpenter without blood transfusion. It was risky, but was done on patient’s approval.

He was given high dose of chemotherapy after preserving his own bone marrow stem cells. We achieved what was perceived to be impossible.

Challenge

The challenge was to maintain patients levels of Hb, WBC count and platelets using a cocktail of growth factors for about 45 days.” he said.

Prototype

According to Dr Nayak his team had developed a prototype different from the similar treatment available at the Pennsylvania.  Also, the cost and expenditure of the treatment incurred by the patient was only ` 15 lakh compared to more than ` 80 lakh charged in his home country, for such treatments,” he added.

The patient Curtis Carpenter was fully cured and recovered well, and has returned to the US. There would be a 20 per cent chance of the lymphoma recurring in these kind of cases, Dr Radheshyam said.

Jayaram, vice-president of Bharath Diagnostic Centre attached to HCG was present at the press meet.