Thứ Hai, 06/04/2015, 05:56 (GMT+7)

Vietnam records first successful allogeneic stem cell transplant

The National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) on Thursday announced the successful stem cell transplant taken from public samples of umbilical cord blood – the first allogeneic case in Vietnam – for 28 year old Hoang Thi Thuy Linh from central Quang Binh province.

Linh, diagnosed with blood cancer and a short time to live, was set to be best treated by syngeneic stem cell therapy; however, the stem cell sample of Linh’s younger brother did not match despite his willingness to donate stem cells.

Doctors of the NIHBT moved on to search in the Stem Cell Bank and found three suitable cord blood stem cell samples among 450 public samples stored.

The transplant was performed on December 30, 2014 and after three months Linh is able to walk again and shows nearly average blood indexes and steadily growing umbilical cord blood stem cells. Linh is scheduled to be released from hospital next week.

The cost of the transplant reached nearly VND1 billion (US$46,000), with half paid by health insurance. The NIHBT has decided not to charge Linh VND300 million (US$13,800) for the umbilical cord blood sample.

The success of Linh’s case has opened up opportunities for other patients with blood diseases to lengthen their life expectancy.

There are three major sources of stem cells including bone marrow, hematopoietic stem cell and umbilical cord blood. Furthermore, there are three types of transplants, named based on who gives the stem cells: autologous (the cells come from you), allogeneic (the cells come from a matched related or unrelated donor), and syngeneic (the cells come from your identical twin or triplet). Since 2006, the NIHBT has performed 150 autologous and syngeneic transplant cases.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)