Apollo Hospitals Group achieves 95% success rate for bone marrow transplant performed in GCC children

Kuwait City, Kuwait, Dubai, UAE: The Apollo Hospitals Group, a pioneer of private health care in India and an integrated health care provider in Asia with 72 hospitals in operation to date, has posted a high 95 per cent success rate for bone marrow transplant (BMT) procedure performed in child patients from the GCC, providing great hope to families from the region where many cases of babies affected by inherited blood disorders require access to effective curative medical procedures such as BMT.

The hospital at its headquarters in Chennai has so far performed close to 220 successful transplants in patients from the GCC mostly suffering from haemoglobinopathies, which are disorders that include thalassaemia and sickle cell disease.  The two diseases affect the body’s ability to produce haemoglobin used by red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body.

“The success rate has been high at 95 per cent and many families have come back to the hospital’s Apollo Cancer Institute to treat their second affected child as they feel safe and well cared for. Adults with leukemia and lymphoma have also been cured and we have a full-fledged adult haematology team for reduced toxicity BMT in adult patients with haemoglobinopathies,” said Dr. Revathy Raj, Paediatric Haematologist and BMT Specialist, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.

According to Dr. Revathy Raj, haemoglobinopathies are known to be inherited disorders in many Arab countries with varying prevalence rates (with carrier rates of 1-11 per cent) and a varying number of mutations. The rates of sickle cell trait in Arab countries, she said, range from 0.3 to 30 per cent, with the Benin, the Arab-Indian and Bantu constituting the bulk of the haplotypes, a set of DNA variations inherited together from a single parent. The prevalence of β- thalassaemia carriers in Kuwait is 3 per cent of the population, whereas prevalence of α-thalassaemia carriers is 4.6 percent of the population. Similarly, prevalence of sickle cell disease carriers is 6 per cent of the population.

As part of their preventive measures, Arab countries, including Kuwait, conduct newborn screening for sickle cell disease and premarital screening for carriers of thalassaemia and sickle cell disease. Despite increased awareness, Dr. Raj noted that high cases of babies with haemoglobinopathies are still being recorded.

“Thalassaemia major and sickle cell anaemia are genetic blood disorders that are best prevented. Once there is an affected birth, early curative options like BMT must be taken up as the success rates with modern health care services are as high as 95 per cent,” added Dr. Raj, a recipient of Woman Achiever Award by Raj TV- March 2011 and an Honorary Consultant of Voluntary Health Services, Chennai.  

Dr. Raj said that BMT is a niche area that involves coordinated efforts from a team of doctors, nurses, laboratory services, and high-quality infrastructure facilities, all of which are available at Apollo Hospitals.

Apollo Hospitals, Chennai has an active Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation unit of which Dr Raj has been part of its paediatric service. She has performed 152 transplants in children with the first successful unrelated transplant in India. The hospital’s BMT unit, in particular, has helped cure over 50 children with thalassaemia.

Dr. Raj concluded: “Families find a matched donor only in 30 per cent cases. We now have access to over 25 million unrelated donors worldwide, with half matching siblings or parent as donors. Through this access, every child can now find a cure.”

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© Press Release 2019