KFSH&RC Organizes Stem Cell Awareness Day
General
07
November
Public to join stem cell donor records
King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSHRC) in Riyadh organizes awareness event about stem cells transplant on Tuesday Safar 8th, 1438 AH, corresponding to November 8th at 8:00 AM till 01:00 PM, in the hospital’s King Salman Auditorium.
Dr. Firas Al-Farih, Hematology and stem cell transplant consultant and head of the organizing committee, said that the awareness day aims at increasing the awareness of the importance of Hemopoietic stem cell transplanting and its role in curing many diseases such as Leukemia, Lymphoma Cancer, Bone marrow failure, Sickle cell anemia and Thalassemia.
He referred that a German donor from Germany who donated his stem cells to a Saudi patient six years ago will be presented during the event. Moreover, personal individual experiences of several stem cell donors and patients who undergo stem cell transplantation in KFSH&RC will be presented as well. He added that more than 28 million persons worldwide are recorded as stem cell donors in the global stem cell donation record, mostly Europeans and Americans.
Dr. Al-Farih said the awareness day will discuss types and usages of stem cell transplanting and the role of donor records in stem cell donation in Saudi Arabia, tissue-matching test and radiation therapy for stem cell transplantation in addition to the psychological aspect of stem cell transplant and the role of organizations in supporting the patients.
Head of the organizing committee referred that stem cell donor record will be available for public to join during the event. They are only required to visit donor record corner to take a mouth swab test for the age group (18-50 years). This test is considered one of the latest techniques known worldwide to analyze tissue and blood types instead of taking a blood sample.
Worth mentioning that since 1984 KFSH&RC has carried out more than 5000 stem cell transplantations for high-risk diseases such as Leukemia, Lymphoma Cancer and Bone marrow failure, scoring a successful results similar to the best global centers.