Patients with leukemia cured by bone marrow transplant

A women and two child patients who were suffering from cancer like leukemia were given new lease of lives by haplo Identical bone marrow transplant by a Bengaluru-based Centre, by utilising Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's new health Insurance scheme.
A 30-year old patient was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and underwent chemotherapy and then had a relapse, some months ago.
Since the only curative otpion was a bone marrow transplant but her only brother was not found to be a match, Dr Sharat damodar, Head, Hemotology, Ongolocy and Bone Marrow Transplant at NH Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre in Bengaluru, told reporters here today.

When no matched donor was available, a half-matched (haplo identical) donor from the immediate family was used and the woman is cured of Leukemia, a cancer of the blood cells which starts n the bone marrow, Sharat said.
Similarly a 3-year old girl was diagnosed with severe Aplastic anaemia, in which bone marrow fails to produce any blood cells and most of them die due to bleeding or infection, he said.
In the absence of matching donor, the girl was treated with Haplo-identical donor from the family, in this case, mother and the girl is completely cured, Dr Sunil Bhat, head of paediatric Hoematology at the Centre said, adding the transplant was done in June last.

A similar transplant was done on a 7-year old girl, with acute myeloid leukemia in February last and recovered, Bhat said.
Stating that the Centre being empanelled by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's scheme to treat patients from the state, Bhat said all the three patients hailed from Tamil Nadu and received Rs.9.5 lakh through the scheme and the balance Rs 5.5 lakh were pooled from other funding agencies and NGOs.