Bone marrow transplant: Introduction
Ever since the world of medicine witnessed a huge milestone in the field of bone marrow transplant(1968), the treatment emanated as a path-breaking medical technique, which can be employed to cure a multitude of diseases that were perceived as incurable at first. Bone marrow transplant procedure is popularly used to treat a wide range of life-threatening diseases including aplastic anemia, breast cancer, leukemia, immune deficiency disorders and more.
Though bone marrow transplants can be used to treat patients suffering from malignant and non-malignant tumors on a large scale, there a few patient cases that fail to receive this treatment owing to unavailability of a compatible donor.
Bone Marrow Transplant: Its definition
Bone marrow is referred to the flexible tissue, spongy in nature, present in the interior portion of the bones. Usually, bone marrow is present in the large size bones including, breastbone, hips and spine wherein the production of new blood cells takes place. The blood cells include Leukocytes, erythrocytes and platelets
Bone marrow transplant method can be used to treat a host of diseases such as aplastic anemia, leukemia or other immune deficiency disorders; during all these diseases the stem cells in the marrow are producing blood cells in the abnormal scale which in turn hinders the production of normal blood cells to a great extent.
During the course of bone marrow transplant, the diseased marrow responsible for manufacturing blood cells gets destroyed with the help of treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation and is substituted by healthy marrow. The malfunctioned bone marrow is replaced with a healthy one. On a successful transplant, the patient can be cured completely. The recovery may take a year or so, following which the person who has undergone the transplant can resume daily functioning at the optimal level. During the course of treatment, the respective needs to get several checkups in order to detect the rise of complications if any.
Bone marrow transplant: Benefits
The bone marrow transplant is a popular type of treatment protocol used to cure severe diseases such as cancer. Patients with cancer may be treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. However, due to such treatment techniques, in most cases, healthy cells also get killed. Now, with the help of the stem cell treatment can allow restoration of stem cells that could have been destroyed or annihilated. Hence, the patient who has undergone a transplant is able to cope up with therapies such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
In a majority of cases, bone marrow is often damaged or impaired owing to high-dose treatments. Due to this impairment, the concerned individual is not able to manufacture blood cells in a substantial amount that are responsible for transporting oxygen to the myriad parts of the body in order to impede the rate of risks or complications like bleeding and infection.
Stem cell transplantation can be used to cure leukemia and lymphoma. Also, it can be used to treat cancers including, neuroblastoma, multiple myeloma, etc.
Bone Marrow Transplant-Cost:
As it involves expenditure that runs into several thousand dollars, the bone marrow transplant is relatively an expensive treatment as such. In addition, a majority of insurance firms do not offer complete insurance coverage for this particular treatment. Also, the cost hugely is contingent on the type of transplant that the concerned patient receives. For instance, autologous transplant’s (wherein the patient donates his or her own stem cells to carry out the transplant) cost is lesser than the allogeneic( the patient gets the healthy stem cells from a respective family member or unrelated donor) or syngeneic transplant( the person donating the stem cells is an identical twin to the patient).
Patients in search of affordable bone marrow transplant centers should come to India without a doubt. The cost of Bone Marrow Transplant in India is significantly lower than that in other countries including, US, UK, Singapore etc. Moreover, the quality of the treatment is supreme. Hence, for people seeking affordable bone marrow treatment, India is the best bet for sure.