Treatment For Thalassemia by Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant

A stem cell transplant is the only treatment that can cure thalassemia, this treatment is to replace or to repair a patient’s cells or tissues that are damaged with healthy ones from another person (a donor). For patients who do not have such a donor in the family, an unrelated volunteer donor can be used. Stem cells are the cells inside bone marrow that make red blood cells and other types of blood cells. Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has become an accepted method of therapy for the treatment of thalassemia, by stem cell transplantation is the basis of treatment that is being studied in the last two decades due to improvements in preventive strategies, and effective control of transplant-related complications. The rate of rejection/thalassemia recurrence was much higher in thalassemic patients than in patients transplanted because of malignancies.

Many people they don't know the benefit of treatment by Stem Cell transplant's method. This system already have many applications for treating diseases for example; cancer, Type 1 diabetes mellitus, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Celiac disease, cardiac failure, muscle damage and neurological disorders, and many others including thalassemia.

Although this treatment is a good action for the patients with Thalassemia, but still there are several risks associated with the procedure. Some of the complications that can occur with a stem cell transplant are; damage to organs or blood vessels, Graft versus host disease and Death. In most cases, the benefits treatment by stem cell transplants will likely outweigh the risk of complications and these techniques can truly be life-saving for conditions such as leukaemia and aplastic anaemia.

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant will completely alter the way for the medical team who want to do practice medicine. Actually to do the treatment for thalassemia patient with this system is not easy, some patients are not able to find a donor who is perfectly matched for all HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigens) molecules. But in this situation, mostly the doctors will continue on their planning with a donor whose HLA molecules are not all the same as those of the recipient, even though this increases the chance of rejection or GvHD (Graft-versus-Host Disease) after the transplantation.