The Transplantation is the process of taking an organ or living tissue and implanting it in another body. Bone marrow transplant is performed to replace unhealthy bone marrow stem cells with healthy ones. This is a relatively newer branch of medicine and the first successful BMT was performed in 1968 at the University of Minnesota, USA. In India, the first successful allogeneic bone marrow transplantation was done at Tata Memorial Hospital on March 20, 1983, on a nine-year-old girl with acute myeloid leukemia. Since then, many sophisticated hematopoietic stem-cell transplant centers (HSCT) have been established across the nation. Dr Chandrasekhar is a specialist in performing all types of Bone marrow transplants for both children and adults. He is the one who performed first ever Allogeneic BMT in the region of newly formed Andhra Pradesh in 2019 at Visakhapatnam. He also performed first ever matched unrelated donor (MUD) transplant in Visakhapatnam.
Bone marrow in our bones contains a subset of cells known as “hematopoietic stem cells” or simple “stem cells” which are responsible for the formation of blood cells. These cells have special characteristics i.e. they can renew themselves, and have the capability to develop into any type of blood cells. Nowadays, hematopoietic stem cells can also be obtained from peripheral blood after treatment with certain growth factors or from the umbilical cord. During Bone Marrow Transplantation, the stem cells are injected into a recipient after a short course of chemotherapy called conditioning. Today, this is a viable option for several genetic disorders, blood disorders, and childhood cancers and with continued research, success has remarkably improved.
The process of donating stem cells is just like donating blood or platelets and poses no risk to the donor. Different Types of BMT
Allogeneic BMT: Donor and Recipient are two separate individuals and BMT is done using the stem cells of the donor. It may be: Matched Related, where the donor is HLA matched relative usually a sibling. Matched Unrelated, where the donor is not a relative of the patient and usually found from one of the various national or international registries. Partially Matched Related, where the donor is from a patient's family but partially matched (haploidentical).
Autologous BMT: Donor and Recipient are the same individuals. BMT is done using the patient's stem cells. The procedure involves giving a high dose of chemotherapy to the patient to remove the primary disease. Thereafter, an autologous transplant is conducted to rescue damaged bone marrow. This type of transplant has a minimal complication and is preferred for diseases like Multiple myeloma, lymphomas neuroblastoma, high-risk medulloblastoma etc
The following are some of the indications for BMT: Blood cancers: