Blood cancer patients in Bihar would not have to travel far and wide for bone marrow transplantation, as the facility would soon be available at Patna’s Mahavir Cancer Sansthan.

Sansthan director J.K. Singh said a bone marrow transplant unit would start at the hospital by year-end. “Most probably in October or November,” he said.

The treatment is not available anywhere in Bihar as of now. The procedure involves replacing damaged or destroyed bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells. It is a process to treat patients suffering from blood cancer, leukaemia and certain genetic, blood and immune system disorders like thalassemia, cancer of the lymphatic system, severe aplastic anaemia (bone marrow failure) among others.

For blood cancer patients, bone marrow transplant is a boon as it can “totally cure” the patients, so long as the disease is detected early and the procedure carried out in the early stages.

However, not all blood cancer patients or those who suffer from diseases like severe aplastic anemia can get bone marrow transplant done, as the treatment is costly.

One has to shell out something between Rs 7 lakh to Rs 8 lakh to avail of the sophisticated treatment in big cities like New Delhi or Mumbai.

Residents who can afford the costly treatment, go outside the state but they do have to face problems, like in arranging for accommodation among other things.

If the treatment were to be made available in Bihar, residents would not have to face many of these problems.

According to officials at the Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, the building that would house the bone marrow transplant unit is ready, with sophisticated machines in place.

“The unit has to be started in a separate building because bone marrow transplant needs to be done in a specialised set-up in an isolated space given the infection risks.

“The seven-storeyed bone marrow transplant unit building is almost ready.

“We have already purchased machines like the linear accelerator and blood component separator, which are a must to start the unit. The expense to start such a unit is around Rs 10 crore,” said Singh.

He further said: “We have decided to upgrade our blood bank too. In the first phase, we would start the autologous bone marrow transplant in the unit in which one’s own bone marrow is used for transplant. In the second phase, we would start the allogeneic bone marrow transplant, which involves using the bone marrow from a donor after proper matching.”

“The allogeneic bone marrow transplant requires more expertise and sophisticated set-up. This is the reason why we have decided to start the autologous method first,” he said.