In a first, a four-year-old girl was treated for relapsed leukemia through Haplo-identical (half matched) bone marrow transplant from her father. Bone marrow transplant is usually done between siblings, as they fully match and are readily available.
“In today’s world where family size is shrinking, it is difficult to find siblings for bone marrow transplant. However, even in this case, the chances of finding a perfect match for transplant is only 25%,” says Dr Sunil Bhat, consultant, paediatric haematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation, Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre, NH Health City.
Bhuvana was diagnosed with blood cancer. After completing one year of treatment, there was a relapse. Since Bhuvana did not have a sibling and finding an unrelated donor is a challenge in India, there was no way the doctors could conduct the bone marrow operation in the way it is normally done.
Also, the doctors could not arrange matching blood cells from other countries, as it is not financially viable. For instance, it costs around Rs25 lakh if matching cells were to be sent to India from the US. Since, the patient could not afford the same, doctors had no choice but to ask her parents for transplantation.
“Parents are more than willing to be donors. Hence, we thought of approaching them. We told them about the procedure, and the father readily agreed,” says Dr Bhat.
Under the procedure, bad cells in the patient were destroyed, post which new cells from the father were put inside her body. However, the first two-three weeks are crucial, since the new cells try to act against the body.
“The blood count is low during this period. We give medicines to destroy cells revolting against the body,” says Dr Bhatt.
“I had lost all hopes for my daughter because we did not have any options. We searched for many hospitals on the internet and zeroed in on this hospital,” says Bhuvana’s father.
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