Mumbai To bring down the waiting period of paediatric cancer patients that require bone marrow transplant, the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Parel has joined hands with three other city hospitals, namely Wadia Hospital, SRCC Hospital in Haji Ali and BMC-run Comprehensive Thalassemia Centre in Borivli.
Dr Girish Chinnaswamy, head of department, paediatric oncology, said the idea to collaborate with other centres was to deliver timely treatment to the patients.
“SRCC Children’s Hospital, BMC’s Borivali BMT centre and Wadia hospital share a common database of children that require BMT. We have a weekly meeting wherein we allocate the patients in these centres,” he said.
The doctors said while initially the parents were hesitant to go to other centres for the BMT, they are now willing to go as the transplants are done at TMH rates. Earlier, the waiting period for BMT at Tata was six months to one year.
“We started it just before the Covid-19 pandemic started. Initially, they were reluctant, but then it saves them from the waiting period,” Dr Chinnaswamy added. He said certain drugs are provided by the hospital for the children sent to other centres.
While 200 children with different cancers register for bone marrow transplant with TMH every year, it is only able to manage 25 every year. However, in the current year, 100 children have undergone bone marrow transplant due to tie-ups with other hospitals.
Dr S Banavali, academic director at TMH, said bone marrow transplant is required by patients with certain types of blood cancers such as leukemia or lymphomas. “With this arrangement, we ensure no BMT beds go vacant at these centres,” he said.
Dr Chinnaswamy said the paediatric oncology community in Mumbai has been working together to design the best treatment and this network for BMT is an example of the same. “Paediatric cancers are rare as compared to adults and collaborative work helps in designing the best treatment with best research,” he said.
In the last two years, Tata-trained paediatric liver transplant surgeon Dr Anurag Shrimal, who is presently attached to Nanavati Hospital (Vile Parle), helped with 20 liver transplants. “He has raised his own funds and managed 20 liver transplants for us in the last two years. We are looking for more collaborations,” said Dr Chinnaswamy.