Half-matched stem cell transplant on 11-yr-old boy
Times of India | 12 July 2024
Kolkata: An 11-year-old boy from Chitpore who had undergone a complex haploidentical (half matched) stem-cell transplant at Medical College Hospital Kolkata was discharged on Thursday. While a fully matched transplant is ideal, doctors had to resort to this mode as a fully matched donor was not available.
This procedure is more challenging and is the first such transplant done at MCH.A similar procedure was carried out earlier at NRS Medical College, the only other govt hospital in Bengal with a bone marrow transplant (BMT) facility.
The boy, Soujyoti Roy, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in 2016. With treatment at MCH’s Institute of Haematology & Transfusion Medicine (IHTM) the boy’s condition was under control till it relapsed in 2021 when the hospital was declared as a Covid hospital. He was being managed with chemotherapy till the disease relapsed again a few months ago.
“There was no other way than to go for a transplant this time. In ideal cases stem cells are collected from siblings after HLA (human leukocyte antigen) matching which should be a 12/12 or 10/10 match. But this boy does not have any siblings,” said haematology professor Maitreyee Bhattacharya who heads the IHTM.
The team decided to go with the half matched stem cell from the boy’s mother Sumita Roy.
“For total ablation of the patient’s bone marrow along with chemotherapy a procedure called Total Body Irradiation (TBI) is required. TBI was given using the modern linear accelerator (LINAC) machine of the radiotherapy department by Subrata Chattopadhyay, radiotherapy head by a process called Vmat,” added Bhattacharya.
After ablation of the patient’s own marrow, the mother’s stem cells were given to the boy. These cells were engrafted and started functioning after 21 days of the transplant. The child was in a hepa filter transplant room during this period. All precautions to prevent infection were taken and proper supportive therapy was given.