Low-cost matched sibling bone marrow transplant for standard-risk thalassemia in a limited-resource setting

Abstract

Thalassemias are the most common inherited genetic disorder in India and a major public health burden with bone marrow transplant (BMT) considered the only established curative therapy. We describe outcomes for patients (n = 71) with standard-risk thalassemia (liver size 80 at the last follow up. 5 patients (7%) died, mortality related to transplant. Enough data existed for 2 centers in India (36/71 transplants) to analyze overall costs from admission up to one-year post-BMT which revealed a median cost of Rs 7,30,445 ($11519) [Range Rs 4,52,821–10,32,842 ($ 7079–16147)]. In conclusion, children with thalassemia in resource limited settings can achieve good outcomes with BMT at a reasonable cost.

Keywords

• Thalassemia
• Bone marrow transplant
• Standard risk
• Low-middle income country
• Healthcare cost