Bone marrow transplant facility opens at Safdarjung Hospital

Bone marrow transplant may use cells from ones own body autologous transplant or from a donor allogeneic transplant.

A bone marrow transplant facility was opened for public at the Centre-run Safdarjung hospital on Wednesday.

Safdarjung Hospital is the first central government hospital where BMT facility will be available at a negligible cost to the patient which costs around Rs 10-15 lakh in private facilities, said Dr Kaushal Kalra, the Head of Department, Medical Oncology.

Medical Superintendent Dr B L Sherwal, who inaugurated the facility, said the opening of a BMT unit would provide a big relief for all the poor patients.

Earlier in Delhi, only AIIMS offered this facility in a government set up for patients of blood cancer and other cancers.

Besides, AIIMS, in northern India, at government facilities, BMT happens in Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, and Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow. ''SJH (Safdarjung Hospital) is the first central government hospital where BMT facility will be available at a negligible cost to the patient against a cost of Rs 10-15 lakh in private hospitals,'' Dr Kalra said.

BMT is a process where the blood or marrow of a healthy donor replaces unhealthy blood forming cells (stem cells) of the patient with healthy stem cells which later form red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, said Dr Kalra HOD Medical Oncology. Bone marrow transplant may use cells from one's own body (autologous transplant) or from a donor (allogeneic transplant). This is done in transplant eligible patients and is an essential treatment procedure especially in blood cancer, lymphoma, multiple myeloma patients and some congenital diseases.