Clung to life with his bone marrow

Şeref Çapkın (62), who wanted to have an allergy test at the hospital where he took his wife in Balıkesir and was found to have bone marrow cancer during the examinations, underwent an autologous stem cell transplant at İzmir City Hospital. Prof. Dr. Oktay Bilgir, a Hematology Clinic Specialist at İzmir City Hospital who managed Çapkın's treatment process, said, “We also froze the cells we collected from him 15 days ago here and transplanted them. We are currently on the 6th day of the transplant, it is going very well. Autologous transplant is taking a person's own cells, freezing them, and giving them back to themselves after high-dose chemotherapy”.

Retired Şeref Çapkın, living in Balıkesir, had an allergy test at the hospital where he took his wife. Upon the guidance of his doctor, who did not like his blood values, Çapkın applied to a hematology specialist, and examinations revealed that he had bone marrow cancer. An autologous stem cell transplant was performed on Çapkın at the İzmir City Hospital Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

Stating that he learned about his illness by chance, Şeref Çapkın said, "I took my wife to the doctor for an allergy test. I also wanted to get tested. Our doctor in Balıkesir did not like my blood values and referred me to a hematology specialist. After detailed genetic tests and the examination of the bone marrow taken from my hip, it was detected that it was the early stages of 'Multiple Myeloma' (bone marrow cancer). Following the initial diagnosis, I received chemotherapy injections and smart drug treatment in three-week periods in Balıkesir".

'I USED TO LOVE DRINKING WATER, I BECAME UNABLE TO DRINK WATER DUE TO NAUSEA'

Indicating that he was admitted to İzmir City Hospital in April and his stem cells were first collected and frozen, Çapkın said, "Chemotherapy and medications definitely change the body's balance. I lost weight during this process. I dropped from 97 kilograms to 80 kilograms. In November, my gallbladder also burst and I underwent surgery, which accelerated my weight loss. When chemotherapy was given, my first 4 days were very troublesome. While I normally drink a lot of water, I couldn't even drink water due to nausea. Our doctors made the necessary interventions, and now I am very comfortable. Everyone will love living first, we will protect ourselves first. If I am on my feet, everyone is by my side".

'WE GIVE HEALTHY STEM CELLS BACK TO THE PATIENT'

Providing information about the 'autologous transplant' method applied to the patient, Prof. Dr. Oktay Bilgir, a Hematology Clinic Specialist at İzmir City Hospital who managed Şeref Çapkın's treatment process, used the following expressions: "Our patient Mr. Şeref's bone marrow cancer treatment was successfully carried out in Balıkesir, and the disease had entered remission (regression). We also froze the cells we collected from him 15 days ago here and transplanted them. We are currently on the 6th day of the transplant, it is going very well. Autologous transplant is taking a person's own cells, freezing them, and giving them back to themselves after high-dose chemotherapy. The main goal here is to destroy all tumor cells with high-dose chemotherapy. However, since healthy cells are also destroyed during this time, we provide him with a new bone marrow by giving back the healthy stem cells we previously froze. We plan to discharge him in about a week, but he will need to stay away from pets, dust, and soil".

THE ONLY PUBLIC HOSPITAL PERFORMING TRANSPLANTS OUTSIDE OF UNIVERSITIES SETTLED AT THE TOP

Stating that the center has reached the highest number of transplants among all public and private health institutions across the province in a short period of 2 years, Prof. Dr. Bilgir said, "Our hospital opened in October 2023, and we started transplants by receiving our official license in February 2024. Mr. Şeref became our 250th transplant patient. Reaching this number in less than 2 years is a great success for us. We are the only public hospital in İzmir performing bone marrow transplants outside of university hospitals, and we are the unit that performs the most transplants in the Aegean Region".

'TREATMENT CHANGES ACCORDING TO THE DIAGNOSIS'

Also drawing attention to the miraculous biological structure of stem cells and transplant processes in diseases like leukemia, Prof. Dr. Oktay Bilgir continued his speech as follows: "Stem cells are structures that can renew themselves and differentiate into other cells. Here, we use hematopoietic stem cells that produce blood cells. Treatment changes according to the diagnosis of the disease. For example, in leukemias, we mostly prefer Allogeneic stem cell transplantation obtained from a relative or an external donor. TÜRKÖK is very successful in this regard in our country. We can find donors with compatible tissue groups from TÜRKÖK and perform transplants from them.

Sometimes, when we cannot find a donor with a compatible tissue group from relatives or TÜRKÖK, we also perform transplants from the partially compatible stem cells of the patient's parents and children, and we call this 'Haploidentical stem cell transplant'. We observe a significant increase in haploidentical stem cell transplants recently. We frequently perform this transplant in our unit as well".