Best Bone Marrow Transplantation Clinics in Turkey

Bone marrow transplantation is amongst the best treatment options for leukemia,  anemia, bone marrow failure syndrome, lymphoma, neuroblastoma, and many other blood disorders. Around 1.24 million people develop blood cancer every year worldwide, blood cancer accounts for 7% of all cancer types. Thousands of people lose their lives while fighting blood cancer. Blood cancers were once considered cureless but thanks to medical advancement and innovative therapeutic procedures many patients, especially those at initial stages are cured plus the recovery rate is further expected to rise.

Bone Marrow Transplantation in Turkey

Turkish Bone marrow transplantation centers create a safe environment to perform these kinds of procedures. Every practice is carried out to comply with the safety standards set by regulatory authorities. Turkish hospitals work closely with other departments following an interdisciplinary approach that is crucial for  proper execution of the treatment.

Bone marrow transplantation provides relief to people by swapping bone marrow that is damaged with a healthy or a new one. Transplantation is preferred for people suffering leukemia, myeloma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, thalassemia, etc. The treatment is  carried out in three ways:

1. By taking the person's stem cells
2. The second option is taking stem cells from the patient's relative
3. Lastly a person who is not the relative of the person can also donate the stem cells

Along with adults, many children suffer from blood cancers too. The most frequently occurring blood cancer in children is leukemia which accounts for 28% of all types of childhood cancers. Thus to treat children fighting blood cancer there are separate pediatric cancer centers in many Turkish hospitals that treat children with comprehensive care. Children's treatment through bone marrow transplantation in leukemia in Turkey is one of the successful medical procedures of its pediatric cancer centers. This procedure has given new lives to many children.

People are concerned about the risks, if a person undergoes a bone marrow transplant (autologous) are used then the chances of risks are less as the person's cells are used whereas if an allogeneic transplant is done there is a probability that the transplant might be rejected.

A few side effects patients experience after undergoing a transplant include:

• Weakness
• Vomiting
• Fever
• Depression
• Mental health deteriorated
• Decrease in number of RBCs and platelets from chemo
• Other infections might occur

Success rate of bone marrow transplant in Turkey

• Success rate of the procedure for patients with non-malignant tumors is quite high i.e. 70% to 90 % from the related donors and 36% to 65% from an unknown donor.

• For patients with lymphoma and leukemia are around the success rate ranges from 55% to 68% with related donors and 26% to 50% from an unknown donor.
• In case of an autologous transplant the success rate is around 80%

Bone marrow transplantation in Turkish Clinics

Turkey has internationally acclaimed hospitals, a few of these clinics are popular due their excellence in transplantation of bone marrow are:

Memorial Hospital

Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Sisli  offers excellent services that cater to the needs of pediatrics and adults. The center is JACIE accredited and follows all the steps set by the Safety and Quality Center for Human Cells and Tissues. All rooms have pre-installed HEPA filters and operation theaters that follow the ISO 5 standard. Cutting-edge technology to facilitate the patients as much as possible.

Thousands of children get their transplant from Memorial Ankara Transplant Unit. Early diagnosis of blood diseases ensures the high survival of patients after the transplant. The pediatric unit offers international standard treatment facilities

Acibadem Altunizade

Highlight feature of the center is  a GMP licensed laboratory where the stem cells are pre-prepared for the transplant. For haploidentical transplant, T cells (alpha and beta) are preferred. The benefit of the technique is a less probability of rejection and risks. Acibadem Hospital offers patients cutting-edge techniques and has a world-renown transplant team which increases the overall percentage of success of the treatment.

Medical Park Hospital

The  Bone Transplantation Center offers treatment facilities to both pediatrics and adults. All practices followed at the Unit comply with the safety standards. The advanced techniques and proficient hematologists are a part of the unit . For the final decision of the procedure , the unit has a Transplant Committee headed by experts in the field of hematology. The credibility of the unit further increases since they are Health Ministry  and EBMT accredited. Talking about patient care, HEPA filters are fitted in patient's rooms that minimizes the chances of infection. In terms of statistics, the Health Ministry  performed a survey for best organ transplant centers in Turkey during 2016 and 2018. The results showed a staggering figure of patients made Medical Park Hospitals their top choice. Following is the breakdown of figures for procedures performed:

Hisar Intercontinental Hospital

Dr. Aysen Timuragagolu, leads the bone marrow transplant center. The center has hematology experts who are skilled in carrying out transplantation. There are 20 beds to facilitate the patients as much as possible. Patient’s rooms have international-standard HEPA filters to keep the environment free of contamination. Further, a nutritionist monitors the food served to patients during their hospital stay. A psychologist is always on duty to provide emotional support to patients before and after the procedure.

Anadolu Hospital

The Anadolu transplantation unit has 2 separate blocks one is for the outpatients and the second is for the inpatients and has the following facilities available

• 22 beds
• PCR
• Cell Processing Lab
• HLA Typing
• Flow Cytometry
• Cryopreservation

Medicana International

Medicana is continuously striving to revolutionize medical care in Turkey. They just extended chain of specialties by inaugurating a second bone transplantation center in Istanbul (former, Ankara). The clinic has already reached the heights of excellence in organ transplant and is yet ready to set another benchmark by offering exceptional services for transplantation of bone marrow . The newly inaugurated bone marrow transplant center is a ray of hope for Turkish people and international people. The center has latest and novel techniques and is headed by internationally acclaimed doctors.

Leading Doctors for Bone Marrow Transplantation

• Prof. Dr. Zafar Gulbas

He is the president of the bone marrow transplantation center of Anadolu medical center and has experience of almost 45 years. He treats many types of Heme cancers

• Dr. Sebnem Izmir

She is a top-rated onco hematologist at Sisli Memorial Health Care Centre and has expertise in performing stem cell transfer procedures.

Other leading onco hematologists are:

• Professor Dr. Yener Koc
• Dr. Songul Serefhanoglu
• Prof. Dr. Siret Ratip
• Prof. Atila Tanyeli