Success 100pc:Daily Star

From left, Jason Harlow, associate director for Global Programmes; Anne-Marie Barron, clinical nurse specialist; and nurse practitioners Jenna Morgan and Colleen Danielson, all from the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, pose during the celebration of the first anniversary of the bone marrow transplant programme at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Photo: Star Bangladesh has taken a big leap
in cancer treatment as the country's first Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit saved the lives of all its blood cancer patients in the last one year. The success of the BMT Unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital raises hopes for thousands to avoid premature death at costs much less than that abroad. It could spur expansion of the state-of-the-art medical facility in the country to cater for a large number of cancer patients in the future. The unit started its journey in 2012 after the then health minister AFM Ruhal Haque asked Bimalangshu Ranjan Dey, a bone marrow transplant physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the USA, to initiate a BMT programme in Bangladesh.   Later, a partnership agreement to this effect was signed between the MGH and the health ministry. The MGH, the first teaching hospital of Harvard University Medical School, provided technical support and training for setting up the facility at the DMCH free of charge, and Bangladesh government procured medical equipment. Advertisement The unit conducted its first bone marrow transplant on March 10 last year. Since then, 12 patients have had bone marrow transplants with financial support from the government. “Thanks to the Almighty, all the patients are alive. And they are doing fine,” Bimalangshu, one of the architects behind the collaborative initiative, said in an interview with The Daily Star on Saturday. This is an outstanding achievement because zero mortality rate in the first year of such a programme is rare in any developing country, said the Bangladesh-born physician. The country now has a state-of-the-art BMT programme where a Bangladeshi citizen is treated the same way an American is treated in his country, he said. Bimalangshu lauded ex-minister Ruhal and incumbent health minister Mohammad Nasim for acting as a driving force behind the success. The MGH trained physicians, technicians, nurses and technologists under the programme that aims at treating blood cancer and thalassemia patients. Fifty-year-old Awlad Hossain is among the patients who benefited from the programme. Awlad, an assistant director at microfinance organisation ASA, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in November 2013. When a local oncologist advised him to undergo 50 radiotherapies, he contacted Prof Mohiuddin Khan, director of the BMT Unit at the DMCH, for suggestion. Prof Mohiuddin then put him in touch with Bimalangshu. Awlad had his bone marrow transplant on January 8 this year, and was under intensive care of the BMT Unit until his release on February 5. He is now going through post-BMT procedures. “I had lost hope. Now I feel well. All other patients, who received treatment at the BMT Unit, are also doing fine.  I am hopeful I will be fully cured soon. This type of facility should be expanded,” said Awlad. Bimalangshu said the initiative has so far touched the lives of a few but it needs support from the government as well as the private sector to cover a large section of the population. The next challenge for the unit will be to switch from autologous BMT to allogeneic transplantation which is more sophisticated. It is necessary because patients with certain types of blood cancer and thalassemia don't benefit from autologous transplant, he said. A team from the DMCH and the MGH would organise a “cancer walk” in the capital today to raise public awareness about the importance of donating bone marrow. They hope to get further support from the government and the private sector to establish the country's first bone marrow registry: Bangladesh Marrow Donor Programme.  To that end, a fund raising initiative will be launched today for setting up a laboratory where cancer patients and bone marrow donors could get registered. Bimalangshu said a data base on bone marrow donors has to be prepared so that patients in need of allogeneic BMT can find their ideal matches. Statistics on cancer patients are hard to find as the country doesn't have an ideal national database. Bimalangshu said many die from blood cancers and thalassemia every year simply because they don't have access to treatment. “The MGH is ready to help set up the lab. But Bangladesh government and the people have to lead this effort,” he said. Senior MGH administrators, including Dr David Bangsberg, director of MGH Centre for Global Health, Dr Thomas Spitzer, director of Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, and David Ryan, clinical director of MGH Cancer Centre, have been fully supportive of this collaboration, he said. Prof Mohiuddin Khan, director of the BMT Unit at the DMCH, praised the policymakers and experts from the MGH for playing a key role in the noble initiative.