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In the largest children's hospital – National Children's Specialized Hospital Okhmatdyt – during January-August 2021, 31 bone marrow transplantation operations were performed. For the entire past year – 2020 – they managed to conduct 26 such operations.

Now in the Department of bone marrow transplantation of Okhmatdyt for children, all types of allogeneic* transplantation are performed.

In addition, in April 2020, for the first time in the history of Ukrainian medicine, the first non-family transplant was performed in Okhmatdyt. The donor was found in Germany, due to the work of the Ukrainian register of bone marrow donors.

Carrying out such operations gave hope for life to Ukrainian children, for whom until recently the only chance to survive was treatment abroad. After all, according to demographic and epidemiological data, about 100-150 children in Ukraine annually need allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (due to hematological, oncological, metabolic and immunological diseases). Of these, 60-70% do not have a compatible family donor. Now such children can be helped in Ukraine.

Now performing such an operation costs the state $ 65-90 thousand. This is half as cheap as if you had to send a patient to Turkey for treatment, and three to four times less than performing such a transplant in Israel or Germany.

Today, the bone marrow transplantation department of Okhmatdyt can provide up to 50-60% of all national needs. To fully meet the needs of patients with appropriate operations, it is necessary to further develop a network of transplant centers in the regions, for example, already existing in Lviv and Cherkasy.

* Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation is a type of bone marrow transplant (from a donor), the essence of allogeneic transplantation is to use donor bone marrow cells to replace the patient's bone marrow.

** According to WHO, cancer is the leading cause of death in children, and malignant blood diseases are the most common type of childhood cancer.