KAMPALA—The Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) has announced it is introducing a relatively less pricey Bmt Bone Marrow Transplant as part of a new technology of blood and cellular therapy to provide more treatment options for cancer patients.
The new treatment options will also be available for other patients without cancer who are in dire need of advanced management.
The number of people diagnosed with cancer in the world each year has leaped to more than 14 million, according to the World Health Organization. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, many patients are scouring clinics for critical care, with little success.
Most Ugandan patients are flown to India for treatment. Bmt Bone Marrow Transplant in India costs about US$ 13,500 (about Ug Shs 47,250,000) to US$ 16,500 (Ug Shs 57,750,000) for international patients.
The patient has to stay in the hospital for 20 days and outside the hospital for 90 days. The total cost of the treatment depends on the diagnosis and facilities opted for by the patient. But UCI wants to change that with its new treatment options.
“Bone marrow transplant (BMT), also known as, hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is an advanced treatment intervention that is required for several cancerous and non-cancerous medical conditions in hematology,” the institute said in a statement read at the Uganda Media Centre this week.
“The establishment of an HSCT program requires the efforts of experienced and appropriately trained personnel to lead the program as well as financial, legal, ethical, and other institutional support…UCI is getting ready for this complex kind of treatment.”
According to the statement, a bone marrow transplant may be the best treatment option or the only
potential for a cure for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia and many other diseases for Ugandans and those from beyond with such diseases.
“There are a significant number of patients who would benefit from BMT but cannot have this treatment because of the costs. Having the service locally available means that a bigger number would access the treatment at a comparatively less cost.”
The other treatment at UCI will be the apheresis procedure. Using the procedure, the institute will offer therapeutic apheresis and cellular collections, red blood cell exchange (RBCX) for patients with sickle cell disease, collection of higher-quality blood components (plasma, platelets, and red blood cells), and treatment of non-cancer patients with serious immune-mediated diseases, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, TTP, etc.
According to a statement released by UCI, apheresis is a procedure in which blood is collected, parts of the blood, such as platelets or white blood cells, are taken out, and the rest of the blood is returned to the donor.
The institute revealed that it is offering bone marrow transplant (BMT), also known as hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), an advanced treatment intervention required for several cancerous and non-cancerous medical conditions in hematology.
“The establishment of an HSCT program requires the efforts of experienced and appropriately trained personnel to lead the program, as well as financial, legal, ethical, and other institutional support. UCI is getting ready for this complex kind of treatment,” the Institute said.
UCI said setting up a bone marrow transplant service is expensive given the composition of the transplant unit, which includes a designated inpatient unit with six single-bedded rooms with adequate space and isolation capability.
“Because of the special precautions, such as well-sealed rooms with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, positive pressure differential between patient rooms and the hallway, self-closing doors, more than 12 air exchanges per hour, and continuous pressure monitoring, furnishing these patient rooms is costly. HEPA filters protect immunocompromised hematology patients, including transplant recipients, from acquiring fungal infections.”
There should be an outpatient unit for both pre-transplant assessment and work-up and post-transplant follow-up and management. For this, there will be a designated area for outpatient care with reasonable provisions for ensuring protection from infections; a pharmacy providing 24-hour availability of specialized medications for the care of transplant patients; and a 24-hour on-site laboratory for routine bacterial and fungal cultures of various patient specimens.
“Another high-cost laboratory requirement is an HLA typing service, although this could be outsourced to a reference laboratory at the start,” the statement said.
In addition, the facility will require a 24-hour on-site blood banking service for ABO typing, cross-matching, and an urgent supply of red blood cells and platelets for transfusion; peripheral blood stem cell apheresis service on-site; and “to this we have two cell separators operated by appropriately trained and experienced staff and a designated stem cell processing facility that will be appropriately equipped, including flow cytometry for analysis.”
Apart from treating cancer, a bone marrow transplant can be used to replace diseased, non-functioning bone marrow with healthy, functioning bone marrow for conditions such as leukemia, aplastic anemia, and sickle cell anemia; regenerate a new immune system that will fight existing or residual leukemia or other cancers not killed by the chemotherapy or radiation used in the transplant.
According to the statement, BMT can be used to replace the bone marrow and restore its normal function after high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation are given to treat a malignancy, replacing the bone marrow with genetically healthy functioning bone marrow to prevent more damage from a genetic disease process.
The institute, however, said that it lacks enough specialists for the service, but it has embarked on a serious training program for the various cadres, including short courses in the bone marrow and cellular therapies.
“The introduction of the new technology is expected to reduce the number of people seeking treatment abroad. All the services are anticipated to be free for Ugandans, and the UCI Board is soon expected to deliberate about it,” UCI said.