City hospital performs 1st ever blood stem cell transplant from unrelated donor

HCM CITY — The HCM City Blood Transfusion Haematology Hospital on Thursday successfully performed the country’s first ever peripheral blood stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor.

Dr Phù Chí Dũng, the hospital’s director, said that on May 15 a 25-year-old patient from the Mekong Delta province of Cà Mau was admitted with juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia (JMML).

According to Cancer Research UK,  JMML is a very rare type of slowly developing (chronic) blood disorder that occurs in young children.

Dũng said the only method to effectively treat it is to transplant peripheral blood stem cells from a healthy donor.

But since stem cells with matching human leucocyte antigens could not be found in the country, the hospital had contacted its partners in other countries and territories, including the Tzu Chi Stem Cell Centre in Chinese Taipei.

On July 14 the centre said it had found a matching donor.  

On September 20 the hospital performed the transplant using blood stem cells provided by the Chinese Taipei’s centre.

The patient is recovering under the watchful eyes of the hospital’s doctors.

According to the hospital, the transplantation is a new advance in treatment, providing new hope for patients with severe diseases who need stem cell transplantation but lacking relatives with matching stem cells. —VNS