What is bone marrow transplantation?

A bone marrow transplant is a process for replacing the damaged or the diseased bone marrow, which is a spongy material present inside the bones where the human body makes and keeps the blood cells. It is a kind of bone marrow treatment in India.

The blood cells start as very young cells, known as hematopoietic stem cells. When they mature, they travel out from the bone marrow into your blood. In other words, a bone marrow transplant is also known as a stem cell transplant.

When a bone marrow is damaged, it produced very few blood cells that are not enough for your immune system. Therefore, a bone marrow transplant can help in curing specific diseases or some cancer. However, it also implies that the recovery process will be long, and there is a risk of some side effects. Your doctor talks to you about all pros and cons before transplantation.

Know the reasons why bone marrow transplant in India is done?
Bone marrow in human being consist of the hematopoietic stem cells which grow to becomes

• Red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout your body.
• White blood cells that assist your immune system.
• Platelets that helps in blood clotting.

With a bone marrow transplantation

• It is possible to replace the stem cells that were previously destroyed by chemotherapy for curing cancer.
• Replacing the diseased marrow that is not able to make its own stem cells. The diseased bone marrow is replaced with a healthy bone marrow. It assists in treating conditions like leukaemia, sickle cell anaemia and aplastic anaemia.
• Make addition of the donor cells to assist in finding and killing the cancer cells. In addition, it helps in regenerating a new immune system.
• Replacing the bone marrow with healthy bone marrow to prevent more damage from a genetic disease process.

In simple words, the primary goal of a bone marrow transplantation is curing several diseases and kinds of cancer. However, when the dose of radiation required to cure cancer is very high, the person's bone marrow stem cells get destroyed permanently, a bone marrow transplant in India is required.

All the risks and the advantages should be appropriately measured in a thorough discussion with your doctor and your specialists before the whole process.

Some diseases can benefit from a bone marrow transplant in India.

• Leukaemia
• Severe aplastic anemia
• Lymphomas
• Multiple Myeloma
• Immune deficiency disorders
• Solid tumour cancers.

But not all patients experience diseases in the same manner, and bone marrow treatment might not be suitable for everyone who is suffering from such conditions.

What is a different type of bone marrow transplantations?

There are mainly two kinds of bone marrow transplantation.

• Autologous: Here, your medical team will collect the stem cells from your bone marrow or the blood and then stores them while getting your cancer treatment. Then they put the stem cells into the bloodstream. The cell then travels towards your bone marrow and then multiply for making the healthy stem cells again.
• Allogenic: After cancer treatment, you will get stem cells from any person whose bone marrow matches with yours. He/she might be your family member or somebody from the national list of donors.

When the donor is an identical sibling whose kind of tissues is the same as yours, it is known as syngeneic transplantation. Doctors can also utilize the stem cells from the blood present in the newborn's umbilical cord.

How to prepare for bone marrow transplantation?

Your health care provider will decide whether or not a bone marrow transplantation will work for you or not. They will conduct a physical exam and other tests to know about your blood and how perfectly your heart, lungs, liver and other organs will work.

If transplantation is a good option, they will talk to you about what kind of process you need to have and give you medicine. It will stay even after your treatment.

Collection of the cells for autologous bone marrow transplant India

Your doctor will use a long needle to take out the stem cells from the bone marrow present in the hip bone. It is usually carried out in the operation room by putting the person under general anesthesia, which means you are sleeping and you will not feel anything. The process will take about 1 or 2 hours. You can go home either that day or the following day. However, you might feel a sore and some weakness for few days after stem cell collection.

It is also possible to take cells from the blood directly with a process known as apheresis. First, you will need to take a drug known as filgrastim that triggers the bone marrow to make and then release many stem cells. Then your healthcare provider will take blood from your vein present in your arm and then run it through one machine that helps in separating the stem cells. The other cells travel back to the bloodstream. The whole procedure Apheresis is one of the outpatient processes, which means you will not have to stay in the hospital. It will take 2-4 hours in whole.

Collection of cells for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation: Your doctor will make a match of yours with someone having a similar kind of protein on their white blood cells, known as human leukocyte antigen. The type of HLA is something that will run in your family.

Whether the donor is a relative or any stranger, the donor will have to go through a similar process for collecting the stem cells. For example, when parents select to collect cells from an infant's umbilical cord, it is collected after birth when the cord is clamped and cut.

Conditioning: The process starts with conditioning. It involves a high dose of chemotherapy which might be radiation for about 10 days. It is different for everybody and is usually based on the overall health, and the condition is being treated.

Conditioning helps in making room for the new cells to start growing in the bone marrow. It also helps in briefly weakening the immune system to keep your body fighting the new cells. Some of the side effects of conditioning are

• Mouth sores
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Trouble in eating.
• Loss of hair
• Breathing problems
• Premature menopause
• Problems infertility.

After some days of resting, you will receive the new blood cells through the central venous catheter. You will probably awake for this, but it will not hurt.

When the new cells start reaching your bone marrow, they will begin growing into red and white blood cells and platelets. This process is known as engraftment and will take around 2-4 weeks.

How to match the donor and the recipient?

Matching the donor and recipient mainly involves typing of human leukocyte antigen tissue. The antigens present on the surface of the individual white blood cells helps in determining the genetic makeup of the person's immune system. There are at least 100 HLA antigens, but it is also believed there are also few significant antigens that help in determining whether a donor and the recipient match or not. The others are often considered minor, and their effect on successful transplantation is not defined well.

The medical field's whole research team is investigating the role of antigens in the entire process of bone marrows transplantations. More the antigens match better is the engraftment of donated marrow.

Stem cell engraftment happens when the donated cells make their way to the bone marrow and start making new blood cells.

Most of the genes that help in coding for the immune system of the human being are present in one chromosome. As because we have two of such chromosome, where one we receive from each parent, s full sibling of a patient in need of a transplant has a 1 in 4 chance of having getting the same set of chromosomes and becomes a complete match for transplantation.

Who are in the team of bone marrow transplantation?

The group of specialists involved in the patient care having the transplantation is mainly referred to as the transplantation team. This is because each individual work together to give their best for conducting successful transplantation.

The whole team consist of

• Healthcare providers: It consists of those healthcare providers who specialize in oncology, immunology, and bone marrow transplantation.
• Bone marrow transplantation nurse coordinator: She is a nurse who organizes all aspects of the care provider before and after transplantation. The nurse coordinator will offer patient education and helps in coordinating the diagnostic testing along with the follow-up care.
• Social workers: They are the professional who will assist your family in dealing with several issues that might arise, which includes transportation and lodging, legal issues and finances.
• Dieticians: Professionals who help in meeting all nutritional requirements before and also after transplantation. They will work very closely with you as well as your family.
• Physical therapists: That professional who will assist you in becoming solid and sovereign with movement and endurance after the transplantation.
• Pastoral care: Chaplains who offer some spiritual care and also support.
• Other team members include pharmacists, lab technicians, respiratory therapists, infectious disease specialists, gastroenterologist and psychologists. A complete evaluation is done by the team of the bone marrow transplantation. The decision to do a bone marrow transplantation depends on several factors like
• Your age, medical history, and overall health.
• The extent of the disease
• Expectations of the disease course
• Donor availability.

How well you tolerate the specific medicines, therapies and processes?

Recovery from bone marrow transplant

The whole recovery process is not the same for everyone, but you have to spend few weeks in the hospital. Your immunity will be weak, so you will have to take medicines for preventing infections. You might also need blood transfusions.

For the first few weeks, your doctors will test your blood often to check for engraftment. They might also take a small sample of your bone marrow for this.

Cost of bone marrow transplant in India

Bone marrow transplantation cost in India ranges from 15.00.000 to 40, 00,000. The final price depends on which bone marrow transplant India process has been recommended. The two types are Autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, are the two common types of transplantation that are prescribed for treating blood cancers or blood disorders.

The bone marrow transplantation cost in India for treating thalassemia ranges from Rs.15 lakhs to 30 lakhs.

If you are planning to do bone marrow transplantation in India, plan your bone marrow transplantation with the Al Afiya Medi tour, where you get access to the best quality care and services. Moreover, you get full visa support.

FAQs

1. What is the significant difference between bone marrow and bone marrow transplant?

Bone marrow is a kind of spongy tissue present inside your bones that helps form blood cells. Bone marrow transplant is a process of replacing stem cells. The new stem cells help in generating healthy blood cells.

2. What are the different kinds of bone marrow transplantation?

There are two kinds of bone marrow transplantation. They are autologous bone marrow transplantation and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

3. How to know if bone marrow transplantation is a good treatment option for me or not?

Well! This depends on the kind of disease and the overall health. Your healthcare provider will guide you better about this. Do discussions about all types of treatment options with the doctor and figure out which is the best option.

4. How long I will be hospitalized after the bone marrow transplantation process?

In general, a patient has to stay around 30-100 days after transplantations. The time for recovery might vary and depends on factors like

Transplantation type.

The reaction of the transplantation to the transplant.

Whether other kinds of the disease affects the patient after transplantation.

5. How to find out if I am a match for a relative bone marrow transplantation?

You have to go through various tests to know whether you are the right match for it or not. Then, you can discuss it with your family members and the doctor about getting tested for it.