Dr. Tran Ngoc Que, Deputy Director of the Stem Cell Center, Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, said that many people have called the Institute to register to donate stem cells.
`Suppose we test 10-20 people, the Institute is ready to do it. But sometimes we have to test hundreds or thousands of people to find a suitable cell donor, so where will we get the funding?` Dr. Que said.
It is expected that the cost of screening, testing and screening for infections for a stem cell donor is about 10 million VND.
Previously, an email `asking for help` from professor Siegfried Wenig, working at the European Center for Atomic Physics Research (CERN), caused a stir in the online community.
Joon comes from Northern Vietnam and is living in France with leukemia and needs a stem cell donor.
According to Dr. Que, in each race the ability to find suitable people is easier, like the Japanese people are the easiest, most homogeneous, the finding rate is very high.
Vietnamese girl Joon wants to find a suitable stem cell donor in the easiest way, so she must find an Asian race, closer to that is Vietnamese.
According to Dr. Que, stem cells, simply put, are from which many other cells are born, which can be similar or more differentiated into functional cells.
“Application of stem cells in medicine is considered a solution for many incurable diseases such as cancer, genetics, Parkinson’s, heart failure… Currently, many countries around the world as well as Vietnam are using stem cells.
Umbilical cord blood samples are processed to extract stem cells.
Hematological diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, bone marrow failure, myelodysplasia, multiple myeloma, Thalassemia… can be treated with stem cells.
Currently, in the treatment of hematological diseases and hematopoietic stem cell diseases, there are 3 main sources of stem cells including bone marrow fluid;
Dr. Que said, just like blood, if it wants to be transfused, it must be suitable.
Because of the great benefits that stem cells can bring, many countries around the world have national stem cell programs.
`The need for stem cell transplants for Vietnamese patients is very high, but currently there is no source while we have enough technical expertise to successfully transplant,` Dr. Que said. Vietnam begins its first transplant.
At the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, there are nearly 100 transplants each year, but there are just over 30 allogeneic transplants.
Dr. Que said that currently there are some places in the country that accept umbilical cord blood samples, but they only serve research and are kept for individuals, not sent to the community.
“To take a simple example, if you want to have a banking system with at least 10,000 people, the minimum testing costs will be about 100 billion VND.