Kolkata: A 43-year-old man, suffering from ‘Aplastic Anaemia’ for over a year, has got a new lease of life after undergoing a successful ‘mismatched and unrelated cord blood transplantation’ at a cancer research institute here.
‘Aplastic Anaemia’ is a haematological disorder stemming from bone marrow which is incapable of producing blood cells.
Rabindra Mallick from Baranagar area in north Kolkata was suffering from general weakness, occasional fever and anorexia since a year. After blood investigations and bone marrow tests, he was found to be suffering from ‘Aplastic Anaemic’.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Cancer Research Institute consultant medical and haemato oncologist, Ashis Mukherjee, said here yesterday that since a single matched donor could not be managed for the patient, so they decided to go for cord blood transplantation.
He also claimed this was the first successful ‘unrelated, mismatched cord blood transplant’ in India.
On July 20, the patient was given high dose chemotherapy and six days later, Mukherjee said, adding they collected cord blood from an unrelated patient who underwent a cesarean delivery.
“We transfused 80 ml of unrelated mismatched cord blood to Mallick,” he added.
Quoting success rates in Japan of such transplantation, the doctor said that studies have shown that mismatched and unrelated cord blood transplantation has a good result.
“Today, the patient’s EBC count and haemoglobin percentage have gone up in a normal manner,” he added.
Mukherjee added that the transplantation could be the basis for treatment of diseases like Parkinson’s, leukaemia and skin drafts (after severe burns) in future.
-Agencies