SUCCESSFUL STEM CELL TRANSPLANT IN PEDIATRIC PATIENT IN BHU HOSPITAL

 

Varanasi: Doctors of the division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University have successfully carried out an autologous stem cell transplantation in a nine-years-old boy. The feat was claimed as the first of its kind in the astern UP. The earlier such procedures were carried out in adult patients only.

The professor in-charge Dr. Veenita Gupta said that the boy was suffering from relapsed Hodgkin’s lymphoma (a type of cancer affecting the lymph nodes). He was admitted in an isolation room and administered high dose chemotherapy to kill the remaining cancer cells. Thereafter the stem cells were harvested from the peripheral blood.

 

Further conditioning chemotherapy was given and then the stem cells were transplanted through a central line. Initially his total leucocyte count became near zero and it was a challenge to keep him free from infections. On the 7th day engraftment occurred and his counts started improving. The patient was discharged nearly one month after admission.

 

This successful treatment paved the way for treating children with relapsed Hodgkin’s lymphoma at IMS, BHU itself. Earlier, many of these patients could not go for this treatment to hospitals in metropolitan cities or corporate hospitals due to financial constraints. The successful outcome in this case was due to the combined efforts of the team comprising of other members Dr Priyanka Agarwal and Dr Anubha Jain from Department of Pediatrics and Dr Sandeep Kumar, In-charge Blood Bank and Dr. SK Singh Chief Medical Officer Blood Bank. The medical superintendent of Sir Sunderlal Hospital Prof SK Mathur provided the logistic support.