Bone marrow and stem cell transplantation at King Hussein cancer center

Abstract

Bone marrow and stem cell transplantation in Jordan has been performed since the 1990s, but the first comprehensive program was established at King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) in March 2003. The program, in addition to other health care institutions in Amman, serves approximately 5.6 million Jordanians. Also, we treat several patients per year from neighboring Arab countries. The program at KHCC performs an average of 80 transplants per year. During the past 4 years 320 patients received transplants at KHCC; 26% of them received an autologous graft and 74% allogeneic grafts. Of the allogeneic grafts 91% were taken from matched family members, 6.7% were haploidentical from one of the parents, and 2.3% were from an unrelated donor or umbilical cord blood. The actuarial overall survival among all patients has been around 65%. The most common indication for transplantation at KHCC was leukemia/MDS followed by benign nonmalignant hematological/immune deficiency/metabolic disorders, with thalassemia major being the most common among this group. The cost of SCT is variable and depends on many factors including the type of transplant and the attending post-transplant complications. The average charge for autologous transplant (both adults and pediatrics) is 24 695 JD (one JD equals 1.42 USD), and the average charge for allogeneic transplant (both adults and pediatrics) excluding haploidentical transplant is 46 787 JD. We have not noticed any peculiar patterns of complications following BMT; however, we have seen a high incidence of chronic GVHD following minitransplant with fludarabine and single-dose TBI (Seattle protocol). At the inception of the program, invasive fungal infection mainly related to building construction, and central line complications were significant. Measures implemented to control such complications were successful to a large extent. We report our results to the EBMT group and we are accredited as an unrelated transplantation center. Although from a young program, our group has presented abstracts to international conferences.