First of Its Kind in DK! Bone Marrow Transplantation at Zulekha Yenepoya Institute of Oncology

First of Its Kind in Coastal City/Dakshina Kannada! Affordable and Successful Bone Marrow Transplantation done at Zulekha Yenepoya Institute of Oncology, Deralakatte, Mangaluru

Mangaluru: It was revealed during the press meet held at Mangaluru Press Club that -“Zulekha Yenepoya Institute of Oncology was established under the leadership of Chancellor Yenepoya Abdulla Kunhi and Vice Chancellor Prof. M.Vijayakumar as a comprehensive multi-speciality Oncology centre and centre of excellence. This has become a leading centre for the management of blood and bone marrow cancer having performed over 20 bone marrow transplant procedures, both Autologous and Allogeneic under the leadership of UK-trained senior Haemato-Oncologist Dr Rajesh Krishna, Head of department, Haemato-Oncology and Medical Oncology. There has not been any transplant-related death to date”.

“The first adult Allogeneic bone marrow transplant in Coastal Karnataka was performed on a 40-year-old man with relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia. As he did not have a fully matched donor, he underwent a Haplo-Identical (Half-match) transplant. The donor was his brother who had a different blood group. Even though this was a difficult procedure, the patient recovered from the treatment with only a minor infection. Now he is 6 months post bone marrow transplant and is completely recovered”.

Members present at the press meet (R-L): Dr Indira Puthran (Prof & Chief Medical Officer, Blood Centre); Dr Dinesh Makuny (Prof & HOD, Radiation Oncology; Dr Rajesh Krishna (HOD, Medical & Haemato Oncology); Dr Anusha Hegde (Consultant, Paediatric Oncology); Dr Shilpa Bhat (Consultant Anaesthetist) and Dr. Boney Paul (Asst. Medical Superintendent, Zulekha Yenepoya Institute of Oncology)

“The first Paediatric Allogeneic bone marrow transplant in Dakshina Kannada was performed on a 14-year-old girl for acute myeloid leukaemia with donation from her fully matched sister. She recovered uneventfully from the transplant and she has completed 3 months of monitoring. She has also fully recovered from her cancer. This child hails from a poor family and the transplant was conducted entirely free for the patient using crowdfunding methods”

“The Allogeneic bone marrow transplants were done by an expert team led by Senior Haemato-Oncologist Rajesh Krishna with over 15 years of experience in this field. He was assisted by Paediatric Oncologist Dr Anusha Hegde, Blood bank chief DDrIndira Putran, Professor of Radiation Oncology DDrDinesh Makunni, Anaesthesiologist Dr Shilpa Bhat, Transplant nurse Suma, and many other doctors, nurses and technicians”.

“The cost of transplant has been around 3 lahks for Autologous stem cell transplant and around 10 lahks for Allogeneic bone marrow transplant. This cost has been around one-third to half of the projected costs from corporate hospitals in Metropolitan cities. We also use crowdfunding methods and charity sources for poor patients. This transplantation was done at around Rs 10 lakhs through crowdfunding, the same if done in a bigger metropolitan city would have been around Rs 20 to Rs 25 lakhs”.