World Blood Cancer Day is observed every year on May 28 to raise awareness about the deadly cancer and other blood disorders like thalassemia and aplastic anemia, which affects more than one lakh people in the country.
Although conventional methods such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy are available, blood stem cell transplantation is the only hope for survival for human blood cancer patients.
Health experts said that every 5 minutes a person is diagnosed with blood cancer in India. Nevertheless, the country is facing an acute shortage of blood stem cell donors.
“Apart from being the thalassemia capital of the world, India also has a high prevalence of blood cancers.Stem cell transplantation is often the only therapeutic option for these conditions, but finding a compatible stem cell match is difficult, especially in a genetically diverse country as India,” said Dr Rahu Bhargava, Principal Director and Chief BMT, Fortis Memorial. Research Institute Gurugram told IANS.
“In India, every five minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer or a serious blood disorder. Despite there being more than 41 million donors in the global registry, only 0.6 million are registered in India. Thousands of patients need to be matched with stem cell donors. There is a dire need for life-saving transplants. We need to significantly expand our donor database to provide these patients with a fighting chance," said Patrick Paul, CEO, DKMS BMST Foundation India.,
-Benefit.
Experts also lamented the lack of awareness and misconceptions about the process of stem cell donation, which leads to hesitation in registering as a donor.
“Awareness and participation in donor registries is critical to meeting this life-saving need. In simple terms, stem cell therapy is the use of stem cells to repair damaged tissues or organs or even replace them completely. It is used to treat certain types of blood.Cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, Dr. Rahul said.
Experts said matching for stem cell transplant is based not just on blood type but on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) characteristics. The criteria to become a potential stem cell donor is to be a healthy adult aged 1 to 55 years.
Although conventional methods such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy are available, blood stem cell transplantation is the only hope for survival for human blood cancer patients.
Health experts said that every 5 minutes a person is diagnosed with blood cancer in India. Nevertheless, the country is facing an acute shortage of blood stem cell donors.
“Apart from being the thalassemia capital of the world, India also has a high prevalence of blood cancers.Stem cell transplantation is often the only therapeutic option for these conditions, but finding a compatible stem cell match is difficult, especially in a genetically diverse country as India,” said Dr Rahu Bhargava, Principal Director and Chief BMT, Fortis Memorial. Research Institute Gurugram told IANS.
“In India, every five minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer or a serious blood disorder. Despite there being more than 41 million donors in the global registry, only 0.6 million are registered in India. Thousands of patients need to be matched with stem cell donors. There is a dire need for life-saving transplants. We need to significantly expand our donor database to provide these patients with a fighting chance," said Patrick Paul, CEO, DKMS BMST Foundation India.,
-Benefit.
Experts also lamented the lack of awareness and misconceptions about the process of stem cell donation, which leads to hesitation in registering as a donor.
“Awareness and participation in donor registries is critical to meeting this life-saving need. In simple terms, stem cell therapy is the use of stem cells to repair damaged tissues or organs or even replace them completely. It is used to treat certain types of blood.Cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, Dr. Rahul said.
Experts said matching for stem cell transplant is based not just on blood type but on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) characteristics. The criteria to become a potential stem cell donor is to be a healthy adult aged 1 to 55 years.
