Odisha’s First Haploidentical Stem Transplantation Conducted At SUM Hospital

Bhubaneswar: The Department of Clinical Hematology at Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here successfully conducted a Haploidentical Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) on a female patient suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

This is the first time such a transplant has been done in Odisha, according to a Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan press release.

Haploidentical transplant is a type of allogeneic transplant in which healthy, blood-forming cells are taken from a half-matched donor to replace unhealthy ones in the patient, explained Dr Priyanka Samal, the hospital’s Professor & HoD of Clinical Hematology, Hemato Oncology and Hematopoeitic Stem Cell Transplant.

“The donor was the daughter of the 51-year-old patient whose Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) matched half of her mother. Th patient did display signs of complications after the transplantation but the same were managed aptly and aggressively,” Dr Samal told newspersons, adding that the state’s first successful Haplo transplant was done at a very reasonable cost.

Dr Samal said she had undergone training on this transplant at Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto a few months ago.

“This case presented an opportunity to attempt Haplo transplant which also was a learning curve for the entire team in the department. We have been praying that she should have a smooth road ahead because there are chances of having Graft-versus-host disease or GvHD, a systemic disorder which occurs when the graft’s immune cells recognize the host as foreign and attack the recipients body cells. But she has already crossed 45 days of the transplantation safely,” Dr Samal said.

With transplantation-related mortality being around 30 per cent in such cases and relapse rate 40 per cent, the doctors are praying for the patient’s complete recovery.

“We have been conducting fully matched sibling donor stem cell transplants, but it’s difficult to find a healthy Matched Sibling Donor (MSD) for every patient eligible for HSCT. There is only 1 in 4 or 25 per cent chance of a patient matching with his or her sibling,” Dr Samal explained.

“But Haploidentical HSCT provides almost 100 per cent possibility of getting a 50 per cent matched healthy donor for a patient,” she said.

Prof. (Dr) Pusparaj Samantasinhar, the hospital’s Medical Superintendent, said Stem Cell Transplant requires a multi-disciplinary approach involving a big team including the departments of Clinical Hematology, Transfusion Medicine and Lab Hematology.

“This treatment was available in hospitals in big cities five to ten years ago involving huge cost and mental stress. The same treatment is now available in IMS and SUM Hospital at lower price,” he said.

Prof. Samantasinhar said that the hospital has conducted around 50 Stem Cell Transplantations so far, of which 70 per cent cases had been done under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY).