Eurasian Congress "Stem Cell Transplantation"
The sixth way in medicine: the obvious of the incredible
Alla Martinkevich, "Soviet Belarus"A landmark event for the medical community:
The first ever Eurasian Congress "Stem Cell Transplantation" is being held in Minsk. Almost 300 leading specialists from more than 20 countries of the world participate in the forum. In fact, the real stars of one of the most "breakthrough" directions have come to us. For example, yesterday an online conference was given by a "living legend" - Director of the Department of Allogeneic Transplantation at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Professor John A. Barrett (USA), whose books were used by leading doctors of the world. Specialists whose names have already been inscribed in the history of the most complex medical field – the treatment of serious diseases with stem cells have also arrived to exchange experience: Brenda Gibson – chief pediatric consultant in hematology in the UK, director of the German Registry of Bone Marrow Donors Professor Karlheinz Muller, professor of the University Clinic of Akita Naoto Takahashi, from whom our hematologists learned the basics of complex science and transplantologists...
Photo: Alexander RuzhechkaThe congress itself is timed to the 20th anniversary of the first bone marrow transplantation in Belarus.
According to the head of the Republican Center for Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Professor Anatoly Uss, the best incentive in the work of our doctors is that years after stem cell transplantation, patients continue to live, have created their families. They have not only children, but also grandchildren. We are particularly proud of the more than 650 stem cell transplantations carried out at the RNPC of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology. At the entrance there is a special stand with a collage of photos of happy grown-up and mature former patients of the center. Today they are successful in their studies and work, create families... The price of such success is great.
"What seemed like science fiction to us recently has become a reality today," Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich said at the congress. By the way, it was he who 20 years ago stood at the origins of the creation of the Republican Center for Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation on the basis of the 9th city Clinical Hospital. – We are getting "smart" drugs – stem cells. This is what is called the sixth technological order. The seventh one doesn't exist yet, so this is aerobatics." Also, according to the Prime Minister, about 200 stem cell transplants are carried out in Belarus annually, and this is one of the best indicators among the countries of Eastern Europe. Although, if compared with the countries of Western Europe, there is something to strive for: there are about 450 such radical interventions per 10 million people there. Therefore, the Government intends to continue to provide this area with special, targeted support.
As the Minister of Health Vasily Zharko said, statistics give a weighty reason for optimism: in six years, mortality from hemoblastosis has decreased by 19 percent, among people of working age – by 26 percent in general. And the most important indicator – the overall five-year survival rate – has reached 60 percent. And this is the European level! With such a severe diagnosis as acute leukemia, 8 out of every 10 patients went into stable remission after complex treatment.
But the forum's program, of course, is not limited to the topic of oncohematology. Indeed, in recent years, a variety of diseases, including multiple sclerosis, have been increasingly treated in the world with the help of stem cells, approaches to the treatment of myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, as well as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases are being studied. Severe hereditary and acquired diseases of the endocrine system, gastrointestinal tract and genitourinary system, neurological pathology are also the scope of application of "magic" cells. In addition, this area of medicine stimulates the development of its related branches – hematology, immunology, genetics, surgery, anesthesiology and others. That's why the future belongs to him.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru27.09.2013