For the first time in the State, the Health department has sanctioned the setting up of a bone marrow registry.
The said registry is being set up as a pilot project of the Malabar Cancer Centre (MCC), Thalassery, and the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC).
The registry aims at preparing a database of stem cell donors to help blood cancer patients, for whom finding matching stem cell donors is a herculean task. At present, there are six bone marrow registries in the country, all of which are in the private sector.
The registry, apart from helping find suitable and matching bone marrow donors for blood cancer patients, will also help in bringing down bone marrow transplant costs, a statement issued by the Health department on Wednesday said.
Cancer prevention and treatment is one of the main components of Aardram-2 in the Nava Kerala Karma Padhati. The Kerala Cancer Registry will be linked to the bone marrow registry. The latter will function closely with advanced blood collection centres.
The protocols drawn up by the World Bone Marrow Donors’ Association will be followed in the selection of bone marrow donors and recipients. Since the State registry will be linked to the world association, those requiring stem cells can be matched against donors from across the globe.
The possibilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning will be explored for the matching of donors and recipients and for predicting the success rate or possible complications in the post-transplant period.
The MCC has already completed bone marrow transplant treatment for over 200 children. It is important to expand the pool of stem cell donors to enable many other blood cancer patients to undergo bone marrow transplant. The MCC is already conducting several awareness programmes on stem cell donation and it has been working with several blood donors’ fora to find suitable stem cell donors.
Published - September 04, 2024 07:57 pm IST
