18 March 2009

700th Cord and bone marrow transplant

NSW Minister for Health, John Della Bosca, will today join past and current patients and staff at Sydney Children’s Hospital (SCH), Randwick, to celebrate the hospital’s 700th cord and bone marrow transplantation.

“For more than three decades, the hospital’s transplant program has been internationally recognised as a leading paediatric transplant centre in Australia”, Mr Della Bosca said.

Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick:

• Performed Australia’s first bone marrow transplant in March 1979.

• Performed Australia’s first umbilical cord blood transplant in 1991.

• Has performed more cord blood transplants than any other cancer centre in Australia.

• Is a national leader in terms of research, development and resources in transplants, as the only curative therapy for some high-risk cancers.

“It’s 30 years since the hospital’s first and longest surviving bone marrow transplant recipient underwent surgery”, the minister said.

Today, the Health Minister is joined by that person, Mr Mark Young, and the boy who is the hospital’s 700th recipient, 11-year-old Paul Abella, to celebrate the two amazing milestones.

Mr Della Bosca praised the courage of these patients and the skill and dedication of the doctors and nurses at the hospital, who continue to deliver a world-class cord and
marrow transplant program.

“In the past decade alone, SCH has successfully completed 332 transplants. Twenty per cent of those used matched family donors, while the bulk utilised unrelated, often mismatched, cord or bone marrow as the donor source”, he said.

“Complication rates are less than 10 per cent, better than national and international reported benchmarks.

“But the hospital is not resting on those achievements, it is strongly committed to further research in the use of cord blood and marrow transplantation.

“Exciting research indicates cord blood may also have the potential to regenerate cells outside the blood and immune system including heart muscle and nerve cells, leading to its use in the treatment of heart disease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s,” the Minister said.

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au