Bone marrow transplant is resulting in long-time survival of blood cancer patients: Dr Ajay Sharma

Chandigarh, October 12, 2022: “For patients of Refractory Blood cancer, who do not respond to chemotherapy drugs, the bone marrow transplant (BMT) is the only treatment which is resulting in the long-time survival of such patients. Besides, the Thalassemia patients also prefer the BMT procedure in India, where 10,000 people get diagnosed with the disease every year”, this was stated by a team of Doctors from Paras Hospitals Panchkula during an awareness campaign on ‘Blood Cancers and Bone Marrow Transplant’. Present on the occasion were Dr Ajay Sharma, director, Haemotology and Bone Marrow Transplant, Dr (Brig) Rajeshwar Singh, director, medical oncology, Dr. Anupam Gauba Associate Director, nuclear medicine, Dr. Chitresh Aggarwal senior consultant, medical oncology, Dr. Shubh Mahindru & Dr. Rajan Sahu, Senior Consultant Surgical oncology, Dr. Parneet Singh, Consultant raditiation oncology and Dr. Jagandeep virk, Consultant ortho oncology & joint replacement surgery from Paras Hospital panchkula

While addressing the public on Wednesday, Dr Ajay Sharma, director, Haemotology and Bone Marrow Transplant, said, “Bone Marrow Transplant is a non surgical procedure in which damaged or diseased stem cells are replaced with healthy stem cells. A bone marrow transplant is usually offered as a solution for certain kinds of cancers as well as some other diseases which affect the production of blood cells. The treatment is a relief for blood cancer patients and in India, over 1.17 lakh patients are diagnosed with the blood cancer every year”.

He added that due to minimum numbers of BMT centres in India, most of the patients suffering from blood cancer die while waiting for the transplant. Another irony is that with a population of 125 Crore, India has very few specialists who are trained for BMT.

Dr (Brig) Rajeshwar Singh, director, medical oncology, said, “In BMT procedure, the diseased or damaged bone marrow (a soft, spongy blood forming tissue present in the cavities of bones) is replaced with healthy bone marrow with the replacement marrow mostly from blood relations like brother/sister and parents. The procedure is mostly advised for patients with Thalassemia, Aplastic Anemia, Acute Leukemia, Sickle Cell Anemia, Lymphoma, Multiple Myloma and Myelodysplastic syndrome.”

Meanwhile, Dr Rajan Sahu, senior consultant, medical oncology, said, “Paras Hospital Panchkula is providing allogenic as well as autologous bone marrow transplant. Also, the center is conducting unrelated and haplo- identical matched BMTs. The latter are needed when a matched donor is not available in the family”.

The doctors added that the bone marrow transplant is used to replace non-functioning bone marrow with a healthy functioning bone marrow. It is generally done in conditions such as leukemia, Aplastic Anemia, Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Anemia. Replace the bone marrow when a high dose of chemotherapy or radiation is given to treat a malignancy and then it is restored for its normal function. This procedure may be done for diseases such as Lymphoma, Neuroblastoma and Breast Cancer.

Also, replace bone marrow to prevent it from a genetic disease process such as Hurler's syndrome, and Adrenoleukodystrophy, the doctors advised.