India must develop Stem Cell Registry improve cancer treatment

New Delhi, June 10 (UNI) Indian health care system needs to develop Stem Cell Registry and Cord Blood banks in the public sector for better treatment of diseases like leukemia, according to Haematopoietic Stem Cells Research Experts from Singapore.

Dr William Hwang Ying Khee, Consultant Haematologist-Department of Haematology, Singapore General Hospital, told UNI that with families getting smaller, the possibility of finding natural stem cell donor for blood cancer patients has become difficult.

So by developing stem cell registery and Cord Blood bank, it was possible to find even unrelated donors whose blood could match that of the patients, he said. This would also help the people of the Indian origin within the region to get the benefit of such registry, he pointed out.

Though Singapore has its own Stem Cell Registry and Cord Blood Bank it would like India to have them as with a sizable population of people from Indian origin, it needed a greater gene pool to match for stem cell transplant. Developing Cord Blood Bank is costly as five million dollars were used to develop a blood bank of 2000 umblical cords.

In India many private companies store cord blood but they were not very useful for the baby if it developed cancer in later age neither would it be useful for other people, he pointed out and said that a public sector Cord Blood bank could be the only feasible solution.

These and other latest developments in the field of Haematopoietic Stem Cells Research are being deliberated at a seminar being organised here jointly with the Delhi Society of Hematology on 'Haematopoietic Stem Cell Research and Treatment'.

Singapore has achieved 88 per cent success in treatment of cancer while the success rate i India is 40 per cent so the experts from two countries could discuss ways to replicate the high success rate here, said Dr Allen Eng Juh YEOH, Consultant (Pediatrics) and Faculty in Department of Pediatrics, National University of Singapore.

He said Haematopoietic Stem cell transplants are used to treat people whose stem cells have been damaged by disease or treatment of a disease especially leukaemia in which the unhealthy bone marrow is destroyed because it doesn't function properly and may contain cancer cells. When healthy stem cells are transplanted, normal cell production can resume otherwise the patient may suffer from relapse of the disease.

Over 100,000 Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants (HSCT) have been performed across the world, saving countless lives from cancer and diseases of the blood or immune system. The expansion of unrelated donor and cord blood registries means many patients who were previously unable to find a suitable donor for transplantation will now have access to suitably matched donors.

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