Experts call for greater public awareness about blood cancer patients' access to stem cell transplants

New Delhi: The fight against blood cancer continues in India, where an alarming statistic states that over 100,000 cases of the deadly illness are reported annually, with a new case being detected every five minutes. Blood cancer's high incidence and fatality rates make it an ongoing serious public health concern. Over half of all occurrences of blood cancer in India are leukemia, while the frequency of multiple myeloma and lymphoma has alarmingly increased in the last few years.

A stem cell transplant has become a ray of hope and a viable therapeutic option for patients with blood-related diseases and cancers. The unfortunate truth is that, in order to receive this life-saving procedure, only a small number of afflicted people are able to locate a compatible stem cell donor. Experts from the DKMS BMST Foundation India urge greater public awareness of blood stem cell donation on this National Cancer Awareness Day, emphasising the significance of registering as a potential stem cell donor.

It is essential to collect blood stem cells from an HLA-matched (Human Leukocyte Antigen) donor in order to perform a blood stem cell transplant successfully. During a transplant procedure, blood stem cells obtained from a donor are infused into the recipient. The stem cells are infused, which makes it possible for them to pass through the bloodstream and land in the bone marrow, where they are found. The patient's sick blood cells are replaced by more of these new blood stem cells, which proliferate and create healthy blood cells.

Merely 30 per cent of patients diagnosed with blood cancer or blood disorders are able to discover a matching donor within their family; the other 70 per cent of patients are dependent on the voluntary donation of stem cells from unrelated donors. Finding a compatible donor is significantly influenced by ethnicity. Therefore, it is imperative that individuals of Indian descent register as stem cell donors, since thousands of Indian patients are in need of life-saving donors.

Patrick Paul, CEO of DKMS BMST Foundation India, stated, “Only 0.04 per cent of Indians are registered as stem cell donors. This means the chances of Indian patients finding a matching unrelated donor are one in a million. This leaves thousands of them on a waitlist for years as they cannot find donors, mostly due to the lack of their ethnic representation on the worldwide stem cell donor database. To address this disparity and save more lives, it is crucial to register a larger number of potential stem cell donors from India. With a population of over 1.42 billion and a rising incidence of blood cancer, thalassemia, and aplastic anemia, the need for Indian stem cell donors has never been greater.”