CUTTACK: The SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) has achieved a major milestone in its journey towards transformation into an AIIMS plus institute with the department of Clinical Hematology conducting its 100th successful bone marrow transplant (BMT)on Wednesday.
The SCB MCH has become the first state government-run hospital in the country and second in Eastern India after Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata to have conducted 100 bone marrow transplants.
A team led by Prof RK Jena and comprising doctors S Sethy, RK Nayak, MM Biswal, DJ Prusty conducted the transplant on former MLA Jacob Pradhan (61). Hailing from Daringbadi in Kandhamal district, Pradhan was diagnosed with multiple myeloma - a type of blood cancer with co-morbidities like the destruction of multiple vertebral spines, diabetes and dyslipidemia.
After undergoing vertebral surgery on May 21 last year and receiving nine cycles of chemotherapy from May last year to February this year, he was referred to SCBMCH for BMT procedure. The stem cell which was mobilised from March 25 this year with the help of growth factor along with other treatments was collected by the state-of-the-art equipment called stem cell aphaeresis on Tuesday. High dose chemotherapy was given on the same day followed by administration of stem cells on Wednesday. The patient will be treated in the BMT unit for a period of two weeks till full recovery, said the department sources.
The hospital is scheduled to conduct its 101st BMT procedure on Thursday. “We will conduct the 101st BMT procedure on a 49-year-old patient Ranjita Sahoo of Alabha in Kendrapara on Thursday. We have a great record of survival rate of patients than any other hospital elsewhere in the country. Of the 100 procedures conducted so far, more than 90 per cent are healthy and leading normal lives,” said Head of the Clinical Hematology department Prof Rabindra Kumar Jena.
The special BMT unit was established in February 2014. “It was the vision of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to provide the best healthcare to the people totally free of cost. The entire procedure from investigations, treatment to recovery is free and all cost is borne by the government. The initiative is unique in the entire country as we have conducted 100 procedures free of cost for the patients,’ Prof Jena said.
Usually, the procedure costs Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh - depending on autologous or allogenic and waiting period is at least one year outside Odisha. The State government is planning to upgrade the BMT unit during the expansion of SCBMCH to facilitate more allogenic BMT procedures, sources said.
The first patient to undergo BMT (autologous) procedure here was a 60-year-old woman, Sakuntala Sahoo of Kendrapara. “I had undergone the transplant on April 23, 2014. After regular check up and treatment for a few years, now I am doing well without any treatment,” she said. The first allogenic BMT procedure was conducted successfully on 21-year-old patient Abhiram Jena on March 27 last year.
The BMT unit at SCBMCH has also notched national and international distinctions by conducting BMT on five elderly persons above the age of 65. The credit of conducting transplant on the oldest persons in Asia and Europe region belongs to the unit, claimed Dr Jena. The oldest person to undergo bone marrow transplant in the country is 74-year-old Zabar Khan in 2015. He is 81 now and doing fine.
While the procedure adopted for BMT on elderly persons at SCBMCH has been published in Indian Cancer Journal and is followed by other BMT units, the procedure adopted for stem cell collection too has been published in a Brazilian Journal of Haematology.