China News Service, Xining, January 28 (Sun Rui) On the 28th, Qinghai Women and Children's Hospital successfully completed Qinghai Province's first haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for a child. At present, the child is in good condition and exits the cabin smoothly.
Yin Qingning, director of the Department of Hematology, Qinghai Women’s and Children’s Hospital, introduced that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) involves infusing the transplant into the patient’s body after high-dose radiotherapy or chemotherapy or pretreatment with strong immunosuppressants to rebuild new normal hematopoietic and immune functions. So as to achieve a cure for the disease.
The picture shows the child successfully leaving the warehouse.
Photo courtesy of the Red Cross Society of Qinghai Province
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation requires that the chromosomal gene pairing of the donor and the recipient must be completely matched, which is called "all-matching", otherwise it is very easy to produce severe rejection reactions.
However, the probability of a complete match is 100% for twins with identical twins, and only 25% of siblings have a complete match. For people without blood relationship, the probability of complete match is only one in 100,000.
As a result, many leukemia patients have lost the chance of treatment because they cannot find identical hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation.
However, half of the human genetic gene comes from the father and the other half from the mother, which results in only half of the chromosomes between the parent and the child.
The "Haploidentical" technique is medically called "Haploidentical bone marrow transplantation". Although the operation itself is difficult, it also broadens the range of bone marrow sources, requiring only leukocyte antigens between the donor and recipient. Half the same is enough, which means that stem cells between related parents, children, siblings, and even cousins can be transplanted in a half-matched manner, which makes it easier to obtain donors and save more lives.
The child Xiaojun (a pseudonym) is 12 years old. He was hospitalized for the first time in August 2019 due to repeated epistaxis. After examination, he was clearly diagnosed as a high-risk type of acute myeloid leukemia. After chemotherapy, the child was relieved and entered the maintenance chemotherapy period.
In order to further improve the treatment effect, the team of the Department of Hematology of Qinghai Women and Children's Hospital discussed the treatment plan many times, and established interconnected information with the parents of the children. On December 25, the children entered the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation chamber, and the patients were first eliminated by chemotherapy. The child’s own white blood cells were implanted with the child’s father’s hematopoietic stem cells on January 4. During the 34 days in the transplant chamber, all medical staff in the Department of Hematology strictly followed the operating procedures to conduct diagnosis, treatment and care, and provided daily psychological counseling to help the patient. The child overcomes both psychological and physical difficulties. The child, the child’s mother, and the medical staff have jointly overcome the transplant rejection, blood transfusion reaction, and infection risks. The transplantation process went smoothly, and the cells were regenerated, and they left the cabin on January 28.
"During the transplantation process and the post-transplantation myelosuppression period, there were no complications such as serious infection or bleeding. The transplantation process went smoothly, the child's hematopoietic function was restored, and the mental response was good. Treatment will continue after leaving the transplant room today." Yin Qingning said.
Wang Kun, president of Qinghai Women's and Children's Hospital, said that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has become a clinical treatment for children with malignant hematological diseases.
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation technology has greatly improved the survival rate of children with leukemia and other hematological malignancies and saved more lives.
With the rapid development of medical technology, the safety and effectiveness of this technology have been continuously confirmed. Children's own organ functions are better, which will help the development of this technology to a certain extent, and the success rate of surgery is relatively higher than that of adults.
At the same time, complications of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation include infection, implantation and rejection, early complications, late complications, and graft-versus-host disease.
If the donor's cells completely replace the patient's hematopoietic cells, and the patient's hematopoietic function is restored, that is, the blood picture returns to normal (about 3-4 weeks after transplantation), the transplantation is successful, and the patient can be released after the patient's condition is stable.
In the later stage, we continue to actively control various complications, prevent and treat organ damage, infection and graft-versus-host disease (commonly known as rejection), prevent recurrence, rebuild immune function, and prevent and follow-up long-term complications.
Wang Kun said that the success of this haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation marks a breakthrough in the children's hematology department in Qinghai Province from the severe shortage of haploidentical donors in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation will benefit more children with leukemia and regain ownership. A beautiful and happy childhood.
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