A great success in pediatric bone marrow transplantation!
İnönü University Turgut Özal Medical Center (TÖTM) Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Center has brought healing to 101 children since it was established in 2017.
Prof. Dr. Arzu Akyay, head of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Center, which serves patients from many provinces of Türkiye, made statements to İNÜHABER. Stating that 101 children have regained their health through transplantation so far, Prof. Dr. Arzu Akyay emphasized the importance of bone marrow transplantation.
"Many Patients Choose Our Center for Healing"
Giving information about bone marrow, Arzu Akyay said: "Bone marrow transplantation is truly a miraculous treatment method for many diseases. Healthy bone marrow replaces the diseased marrow and patients recover as healthy cells are produced. In the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia regions, there is no other center besides ours that actively performs bone marrow transplants in children. In this respect, it is very important to increase the visibility of our center, which performs these transplants successfully."
Noting that many patients come to the transplant center, especially from Malatya and the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia regions, Akyay said: "Bone marrow transplantation saves lives in high-risk leukemias, relapsed lymphomas, Mediterranean anemia, some solid tumors such as neuroblastoma, congenital immune deficiencies, and some neurological and metabolic diseases. The range is very wide and we perform transplants for these diseases at our center as well."
Stating that they are the only center east of Kayseri, Akyay said they are happy to bring healing to patients.
"Healthy Individuals Can Be Donors"
Also talking about the bone marrow transplant process, Akyay said: "First, we suppress the patient's bone marrow with chemotherapy. Then we collect bone marrow (stem cells) from the donor. Stem cells can be collected in two ways. In the first method, they are collected from the back of the hip bones under general anesthesia in the operating room; in the second, after giving a stimulating drug that makes stem cells multiply and enter the peripheral blood, we can collect them from the arm with an apheresis machine. Then we put the product into blood bags and infuse it into the recipient as if giving blood. After three or four weeks these stem cells settle in the bone marrow and begin producing normal cells from there. The whole process takes about a month. Then the patient's bone marrow has engrafted and they continue their life healthy."
Sharing that there are age limits in bone marrow transplantation, Akyay concluded: "People over 55, hepatitis carriers and people with any hematological disease cannot be donors. People aged 35 and under are mostly preferred. The younger the donor, the younger the stem cells. Apart from that, there is no serious problem for being a donor. If you are a healthy individual and young, you can be a donor."
Ersin Albayrak, the 101st patient who regained his health through transplantation at the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Center, and his mother Halime Albayrak also thanked the TÖTM doctors and healthcare workers who supported them throughout this process.
