First haplo bone marrow transplant patient at Cuttack SCB hospital dies

More than a week after Odisha’s first haplo bone marrow transplant was successfully performed at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, the patient died on Friday.

The recipient of the bone marrow was 19-year-old Subhranshu Sahoo, a relapsed blood cancer patient from Khordha district. 

Sahoo was diagnosed with B-ALL (B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia) in August 2016. He had received full chemotherapy protocol, but the cancer relapsed a few years later. As this was a relapsed case, allogenic BMT was the last option, for which a search was initiated for a suitable donor.

While conventional allogenic BMT entails a nearly 100 per cent donor match with siblings being the primary donor, finding a donor in time is very difficult. However, recent advances have made haplo BMT a promising alternative as it enables transplant from half-matched donors. In this procedure, parents, children and other close relatives like uncles, cousins and aunts can become donors.

The clinical haematology department of the SCB Medical College and Hospital had successfully performed the transplantation on Sahoo. His health condition was gradually improving. However, he passed away on Friday morning leaving his relatives and doctors shocked.