“Bone marrow transplant is a definitive long term curative option for most blood diseases,” Dr Nehal Masood, Consultant Haematologist and Oncologist, Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) said while addressing an awareness programme in Quetta.
He informed that excluding thalassemia and aplastic anaemia, bone marrow transplant is an option to be considered for other diseases like Leukaemia, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Physicians treating Thalassemia and other blood diseases should be aware of other options now available in the country, he stressed.
Currently, standard care being offered to patients in Quetta is supportive care instead of curative. This includes blood transfusion, infection control, immunosuppression for aplastic anaemia and others.
Providing free consultation to patients attending the seminar, AKUH doctors stressed on the importance of early diagnosis and cure for blood diseases.
“Stem cell therapy in thalassemia should be considered early,” Dr Masood advised physicians.
Radiation therapy, bone marrow transplant and various diagnostic and therapeutic modalities including blood transfusions for patients with thalassemia, other types of blood component infusion therapy and outpatient cancer chemotherapy for all types of malignant diseases are now available at AKUH, Karachi. The comprehensive cancer care facility is involved with expanding the use of current therapies such as high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell re-infusion as well as modern international protocols of treatment.
Dr Usman Shaikh, Consultant Haematologist and Oncologist, A ga K han U niversity discussed Bone Marrow Transplant for Thalassemia and Aplastic Anaemia. He stated that Beta Thalassemia major and Aplastic anaemia are relatively common although benign haematological conditions with significant morbidity and mortality.
Aplastic anaemia is another condition in which the patient is presented with bone marrow failure. Normally stem cells in the marrow produce red cells and white cells. In Aplastic anaemia, the number of stem cell decreases and that results in anaemia, low white cells and platelets. Patients usually present with pallor, bleeding and fever. Supportive care includes blood product transfusions and antibiotics but mortality is approximately 80 per cent with these measures. For patients younger than 40 years, the curative treatment option is bone marrow transplantation.
As part of its outreach programme and societal commitment of creating awareness of early diagnosis and timely treatment, AKUH organi s es such programmes. The Hospital has organi s ed over 250 ‘Signs, Symptoms and Care’ programmes in Karachi, Hyderabad, Quetta and UAE, benefiting more than 50,000 people. Similarly, AKUH’s Patient Welfare Programme reaches out to patients by providing assistance to those patients who are unable to afford the medical cost of their treatment. 73 per cent of all patients treated at AKUH are from low- to middle-income areas. Since the inception of this welfare programme in 1986, over PKR 1.6 billion has been disbursed to more than 300,000 needy patients.