Hemato Oncology & Stem Cell Transplant

Haemato-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation is one of the Apollo’s flagship departments which has shown steady growth since inception of this hospital and has been providing most advanced treatment.

Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad is performing regular Stem Cell Transplant/Bone Marrow Transplant for various haematological conditions. We perform at least one transplant per month with over 90% success rate with regard to hospital discharges. This is the only private hospital in the region performing regular transplants for Haematological conditions.

Also, we are the first hospital Radiation Oncology set up in the city. This set up has been established and run by a USA based cancer center, CBCC. It is one of the most advanced centers in the country and the technology is at par with any western center.

Haemato-Oncology is a comprehensive department, providing following services:

Medical Oncology: treatment of cancers using medicines – chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy medicines.
Surgical Oncology: most established curative treatment for most early cancers. We have surgeons who specialize in region-wise surgery i.e. Gastrointestinal, Head and Neck, Urology, Gynaecology, Breast, Thoracic, with good support from reconstructive plastic surgery and other allied specialties.
Radiation Oncology: treatment of cancers using radiation therapy – special rays to treat cancer without use of surgery, allows treatment of various cancers, sometimes without removing that part of body.
Haematology: treatment of Blood diseases – non cancer diseases including anemia, thrombocytopenia, high or low blood counts, bleeding and clotting disorders and Blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma etc.

Hospital has related diagnostic and therapeutic services under one roof to provide better quality of care and patient convenience, which includes advanced laboratories and radiology services like 1.5 Tesla MRI, 128 and 64 Slice CT Scan, interventional radiology services and others. Hospital has one of the best histopathology labs in the state.

Stem Cell Transplantation

Stem Cell Transplantation is an exciting area of medicine. It is a well established treatment for several cancers and diseases of blood for few decades. Dr. Chirag Shah has done the first successful “Autologus Stem Cell Transplant for Acute Myeloid Leukemia” in Gujarat. He has also performed maximum number of transplants in private sector in Gujarat.

Indications

Autologus Transplant (Stem Cells collected from one’s own body)

Hodgkin’s & Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: For relapsed / refractory cases, it is standard therapy and in most such cases, it is the only curative option.
Myeloma: Although not curative, it is standard treatment as a part of initial therapy, as it prolongs survival substantially.
Leukemia: Acute Myeloid Leukemia as part of consolidation therapy, to increase chance of cure in this dreadful disease.

Allogenetic Transplant (Stem Cells collected from some one else’s body)

Thalassemia
Several other genetic disorders, especially with single gene defects
Aplastic Anemia
Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
High Risk AML & Relapsed AML
Relapsed ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia)
As last resort in several advanced or refractory haematological malignancies eg. follicular lymphoma, CLL, myeloma etc

Haematology

Hematology is a branch of medicine that deals with diseases of blood including all types of blood cancers, any alteration in blood counts, proteins and various other parameters.

We take care of

Leukemia: Blood Cancers like AML, ALL, CML, CLL, HCL, PLL
Lymphoma: Hodgkin’s & Non Hodgkin’s, all subtypes
Myeloma and related Plasma Cell Dyscrasias
Myelodysplastic Syndrome and related diseases
Clotting / Thrombotic disorders: too much clotting of blood eg. blood clots in legs or lungs, paralysis or heart attack at a young age, repeated abortions
Bleeding problems: excessive bleeding after injury or operation, heavy menstrual bleeding, bleeding or bruising without injury
ICU problems related to blood: bleeding, low or high counts, clotting
Anemia
Low Platelets: ITP, TTP, PTP, HIT, Dengue fever and several others
Pancytopenia & Leucopenia
Pregnancy related blood diseases

Medical Oncology

Medical Oncology deals with all aspects of cancer care from prevention, early diagnosis, treatment planning, supportive care to palliative care.

Breast Cancer

Commonest cancer in women of urban areas
Rising rate, related to lifestyle factors
Early detection possible with examination and mammogram – a special type of X-ray for breast
Major advances in treatment in last several years – Better survival, well tolerated, less surgery required (many cases do not need complete removal of breast)
Anti Cancer Medicines eg. Chemotherapy, hormonal therapy given preferably before surgery – improves results
Targeted therapy – well tolerated, marked improvement in results, especially if given before surgery, may reduce need to remove breast.

Head & Neck Cancer & Cancers of Mouth and Throat

Commonest cancer in men, mainly due to tobacco
Operation involves removal of voice box in many cases, can be avoided in several cases with use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy
Many new medicines have very good results and tolerability
Some of them are taken by mouth, very convenient.

Gastro-Intestinal Cancers

Esophagus, Stomach, Intestines (small & large), Rectum
Chemotherapy can help to avoid operation or reduce extent of operation in many cases, leading to better outcomes eg. avoiding colostomy

Leukemia & Lymphoma

Often detected late, treatment is possible even in advanced stages with better results
Targeted therapies – few side effects, improve results of treatment especially in lymphoma and some types of leukemia, some of them can be taken by mouth, requiring no admission
Stem Cell Transplant / Bone Marrow Transplant

Lung Cancer

Very common in India, Mostly due to smoking tobacco, often detected late
Chemotherapy useful in most cases – even where surgery is required – before or after operation. Since most cases are detected late, they are treated with only chemotherapy, new targeted non chemotherapy medicines are much better tolerated and convenient, some of them are taken by mouth

Hemato Oncology & Stem Cell Transplant