Doha: The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR), a member of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), has successfully performed 42 allogeneic and 105 autologous blood stem cell transplants despite the pressure placed on the healthcare system due to COVID-19.
"Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) is a highly effective therapy and often the only hope for a cure or a longer life for patients with blood cancers. It's a procedure to replace disordered bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells. Transplant physicians use this procedure to eliminate cancer or defective stem cells and restore a patient's blood and immune systems," explained Dr Javid Gaziev, Head of Bone Marrow Transplant Program at NCCCR.
Commenting on the progress of these allogeneic transplants, Dr Gaziev said: "Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is a highly specialized treatment and one of the significant advances in care at NCCCR, as mandated by the National Cancer Strategy since 2011. Interdisciplinary expert teams of transplant physicians, transplant nurses, transfusion medicine, laboratory medicine, and stem cell processing laboratory have invested years of developmental work to finally establish this cutting-edge Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant Program”.
Dr Gaziev further clarified: "These advanced therapies required many years of specialized transplant expertise. A total of 147 transplants with excellent outcomes is an outstanding achievement since the introduction of the Qatar Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Program, which stands today up to other stem cell transplant centers worldwide. Despite Covid-19 pandemic the last two years we succeeded to perform 25 allogeneic and 50 autologous urgent transplantations.
Stem cell transplant therapy is a life-saving treatment for many cancer patients, especially those with blood cancers and some inherited benign blood disorders like Sickle Cell Disease, Thalassemia, and others. This advanced therapy was unavailable in Qatar until 2015, when we introduced autologous stem cell transplantation, followed by the allogeneic blood and marrow transplant program in 2017. Bone Marrow Transplant services at NCCCR meet the best international standards in terms of patient safety and the transplants technology used by oncologists and our BMT specialists".
Dr Mohamed Salem Al Hassan, Medical Director of NCCCR, said:" HMC is committed to enhancing the BMT techniques and to providing innovative services and technologies to improve transplants capacity and capabilities for all cancer patients, as well as to providing the best and most advanced BMT services available to Qatar's population,"
“HMC continues its development journey with many remarkable achievements and milestones reached over the last three years. These achievements include the expansion of the Day Care Unit, the significant transformation made at the Outpatient Department to treat more cancer patients to meet the increased number of Qatar's population in general and the cancer patients in particular. Additionally, the commencement of the Nuclear Treatment of tumors following the opening of the first Radiopharmaceutical Laboratory to provide cancer patients with diagnostic and therapeutic care locally, saving these patients the need to travel abroad for this type of care added Dr Al Hassan.
Simultaneously, there have been substantial changes in how cancer is identified, diagnosed, and treated in the country. With access to high-quality cancer services and the provision of dedicated, specialized care, the cancer treatment landscape continues to improve with more cases being diagnosed earlier, and survival rates continue to improve."
Despite the COVID-19 crisis, we continued to improve our services to deliver high-quality care to our patients, which is the health care challenges of the healthcare system in general and our oncology team in particular. In line with HMC's mission, our ultimate goal is to develop a healthy population; our people are part of the equation in making that happen. We have achieved so much through our employees' dedication, determination, and hard work, and there is still more to complete.
"At HMC, we are committed to continuing our efforts to enhance medical performance, introduce the best treatment programs, use the latest equipment and technologies, and provide staff with the required training on the use of these technologies to ensure the delivery of high-quality care to patients. Dr. Al Hassan concluded.
