Aliza Naaz, the two-year-old infant, after Bone Marrow Transplant in SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A four-year-old girl has donated her stem cells to her two-year-old sister, who is battling acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a severe form of blood cancer. This marks the first-ever allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) performed on such a young child in Odisha.
According to the BMT unit of SCB Medical College Hospital (SCBMCH), where the procedure was performed, Aliza Naaz, the two-year-old daughter of Sharukh Ansari from Jharkhand’s Dhanbad was diagnosed with high-risk AML. She initially underwent induction chemotherapy at the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Jamshedpur in July 2024.
“Post-chemotherapy evaluation revealed that the disease persisted, upgrading her condition to a high-risk category,” Professor R.K. Jena, a renowned BMT physician, said.
“She subsequently received further chemotherapy in October 2024. Given the severity of her case, doctors recommended an allogeneic BMT. Human leukocyte antigen matching conducted at TMH confirmed a 100% match with her elder sister, who is just four years old,” Prof. Jena said.
She was referred to a higher centre with a budgetary expenditure of ₹30 lakhs as BMT facilities at TMH, Jamshedpur, did not exist.
“As the parents of the patient expressed their inability to bear such a huge cost, the TMH doctors referred their case to the BMT unit of SCBMCH, Cuttack, where such facilities are provided free of cost,” Sudha Sethy, Head of Clinical Hematology department of SCBMCH, said.
The BMT unit of SCBMCH evaluated Aliza, who was admitted on January 7. Moreover, her parents were counselled regarding consequences of the procedure. One BMT team was constituted with two faculties from paediatric department. The preparation began from 11th day of admission on January 27. Meanwhile, Aliza’s sister Aatifa was admitted on January 28. The stem cell collection was very challenging since this was the first case where the stem cell donor is so young.
“The same blood group was matched and used to prime the aphaeresis system as the child’s blood volume is too low to sustain the dynamics of stem cell collection. After priming, stem cell aphaeresis started from 9 a.m. on February 6 and completed at 1 p.m. the same day,” Dr. Sethy said. Subsequently, stem cell administration was done successfully on February 7.
Doctors carrying out the post BMT follow up said the patient had infection and chemotherapy induced mucositis which was managed with antibiotics and other supportive measures. The child was stable with no fever even as biochemical and haematological parameters were within normal limits as per the expectation.
“This landmark BMT will create opportunity for cure of many children with blood and other diseases like Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Disease, Aplastic Anaemia, various blood cancer, other cancers, and related diseases. These diseases taken together are huge in numbers, and constitute a significant socio-economic burden on our State. Thousands of patients in our State need this procedure and are not able to receive due to many logistic challenges outside,” Prof. Jena said.
Inaugurated in 2014, the BMT unit in SCBMCH was the first such facility in a government hospital in the entire country. The same procedure, which would cost around ₹15-30 lakhs and requires a waiting period of at least one year outside Odisha, is performed free of cost here. In the past 11 years, as many as 176 BMT procedures have been successfully completed with more than 80% in recovery.
Published – February 19, 2025 09:52 pm IST