Sulaymaniyah, 27 June 2016: the first transplant of hematopoietic stem-cells in the Iraqi Kurdistan has been performed at the Hiwa Cancer Hospital. The team that performed the transplant is composed of Italian volunteer experts and local doctors and nurses, under the coordination of the project’s Scientific advisor, prof. Ignazio Majolino, a well-known haematologist from Rome.
The performed transplant is called “autologous”. It deals with the infusion of stem-cells from the patient himself, formerly collected and cryopreserved at very low temperature. The process adopted entailed the use of the most modern technologies. The stem-cells were harvested thanks to a sophisticated automatized machine for apheresis, after they had been induced into the peripheral blood with specific drugs. The patient then underwent high dose of chemotherapy, and later his harvested stem-cells have been infused again through a peripheral vein.
The first patient of the Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) programme in Kurdistan is Ahmed, 42, suffering from a blood disease called “multiple myeloma”. Ahmed has passed the transplant successfully and was discharged on July 14th. His stem-cells are reconstituting his bone marrow that was formerly treated with chemotherapy at high doses. Thus, the tally of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets will regain its average.
The transplant has been performed in the framework of ICU project, aiming at improving the oncological and haematological care supply of Iraqi Kurdistan. The project is funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and intends to empower the medical and nursing staff of Hiwa Cancer Hospital in Sulaymaniyah to start a BMT programme, in order to provide adequate health care to the oncologic patients in the whole region, including Syrian refugees and Iraqi displaced people.
The team of Italian volunteers coordinated by prof. Majolino is working in close cooperation with the staff of Hiwa Hospital that will run the BMT Unit autonomously, after the end of the project.
«We have coped with the tough conditions in the country not only thanks to our broad experience of thousands of transplants performed in Italy – says prof. Majolino – but also and moreover by acknowledging that only a strategic training would bring about the quick start of the programme. In just three months we set everything up, and with the support of Hiwa director we made it quickly: that’s an unexpected success.»
«It’s the first time we perform such transplant in Kurdistan, it’s a big achievement for our region – says dr. Dana, clinical haematologist of the local team – this is the outcome of the cooperation with Italian colleagues who supervises us from the beginning to the end». Before, Hiwa Hospital had to send its patients to Iran and India for transplant: «From now on – dr. Dana concludes – we will be able to treat the patients in our region, that’s great.»
In few months, the next goal will be achieved: the transplant from a donor. It is still a long way to go, but the achievement pursuit through the so-called “allogeneic” transplant is to cure thalassemia, a blood disease that affects a huge amount of population in this region.
The Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and the ICU project
