Bone marrow transplants touch 100-mark at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology 

Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology and Hospital in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit: file photo

The State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) has touched a milestone by taking up 100 bone marrow transplants (BMTs), including eight allogeneic transplants, since April 2022, giving tough competition to private hospitals in Bengaluru. 

100th underway

The institute has India’s largest State-run BMT unit with a 14-bed facility, including an intensive care unit. While 99 transplants have been completed, the 100th procedure, an autologous stem cell transplant in an adult patient, is underway. The entire transplant process takes about 20-24 days for completion, doctors said.

The stem cells in autologous transplants come from the same person who will get the transplant, so the patient is their donor. Whereas, the stem cells in allogeneic transplants are from a person other than the patient, either a matched related or unrelated donor.

The institute had successfully conducted its first autologous stem cell transplantation on an eight-year-old boy from Tumkuru in the newly built BMT unit in April 2022, said Kidwai administration Naveen Bhat Y.

The patient, Jeevan Kumar, had been diagnosed with Refractory Hodgkins Lymphoma, S4, and the transplantation was done on April 28, 2022, in the new BMT unit that was inaugurated on February 15 that year, on the occasion of International Childhood Cancer Day.

First allogeneic transplant

The first paediatric matched sibling donor allogeneic BMT was done on June 12 in a 14-year-old girl who was suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia (a type of blood cancer). Her transplant was done under the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme of her mother, a garment factory worker. 

The girl’s cancer was resistant to conventional chemotherapy, and she had a very high chance of relapse. Luckily for this teenager, her younger brother was a complete genetic match (12/12 HLA match) and the transplant was successfully done on June 12. 

Expensive in private hospitals

With the cost of autologous transplants in private hospitals ranging from ₹7 lahks to ₹15 lakh and allogeneic BMTs about ₹12 lahks to ₹15 lahks, the demand for affordable BMTs in Kidwai has increased. These procedures cost around ₹4 lahks and ₹10 lahks, respectively, at Kidwai. Doctors said nearly 18 more patients have been lined up for transplant at the institute.

As BMT is not included in the State’s health schemes such as Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka, the institute has been providing these life-saving procedures almost free of cost to patients by utilising the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, SCP/TSP scheme, ESI, and CGHS schemes.

Post-op challenges

Dr. Bhat said as almost all patients availing services at Kidwai are from low socio-economic backgrounds, post-transplant care is a challenge for them.