Kolkata conducts unique Thalassemia treatment

A Kolkata hospital conducted the first successful mixed stem cell (cord blood and bone marrow) transplant surgery to give new life to a child suffering form the HbE-Beta Thalassemia disease.
Dr. Ashish Mukherjee conducted the surgery on Apr 3 to treat a five year old boy named Moinam at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Cancer research Institute in Kolkata.

For conducting this treatment they took the stem cells from the cord blood of the second child (sister of Moinam) of Ashim Pal and Monisha Pal and then preserved it under specified conditions at CordLife, lrgest network of stem cell bank with full processing.

"When stem cells are needed to treat a life threatening disease, doctors ans can effectively predict transplant success by evaluating two factors-HLA compatibility and stem cell count," Prosanto Chowdhury, Medial Director, Cord Life India, said.

"Transplants like these confirm CordLife's technology and our assurance to parents who bank with us their baby's cord blood. HLA matching was undertaken which provided that the tissues of both the children matched and the treatment could proceed. This is the first case of mixed stem cell transplant in India," he said.

Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder in which the body produces an abnormal form of haemoglobin, the metallo protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen.

However, in case of Thalassemia when an HLA identical sibling marrow donor is available, the chance of cure is currently as high as 90 percent.

Illustrating the complicated treatment, Dr. Ashish Mukherhjee, Director NCRI, said: "The first step was to destroy all the existing bone marrow cells for which the conditioning chemotheraphy was used. Then the donor's stem cells from two different sources were injected into the patient's body."

"Bone marrow stem cell, on the other hand leads to Graft Versus Host Disese which is triggered by the body's defence mechanism while the transfusion is being done. The two therapies can complement, not only increase the Stem Cell count but also reduce the chance of Graft versus Host disease and lead to a complete cure," Mukherjee said.

The stem cells that were transplanted in the young patient came from his sister's cord blood and bone marrow.

"It was Dr. Asish Mukherjee who gave our child a new life. He told us that our child will get cured and that was the assurance on which we were bagging upon," Ashim Kumar Pal, father of Moinam said.