Each year, hundreds of cancer patients in Bulgaria receive a bone marrow transplant (BMT) as treatment for haematological cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, or for solid tumours such as neuroblastoma, one of the most common cancers in infancy.
To undergo a bone marrow transplant, patients must first go through a preparatory process that conditions the body for the transplant. This involves a special radiotherapy technique called total body irradiation (TBI). TBI helps to make space for the transplanted marrow, kills any malignant cells that may be left after chemotherapy and suppresses the immune system to help prevent rejection of the transplant. To avoid complications, patients must also receive irradiated cellular blood components during the preparatory process.
The IAEA is helping medical professionals in Bulgaria to optimize bone marrow transplantation by providing the equipment and building the capabilities necessary to carry out TBI. The IAEA also offers very specialized radiotherapy training to the medical staff, including blood irradiation.
Under the IAEA technical cooperation (TC) project 'Routine Application of Highly Specialized Total Body Irradiation Prior to Bone Marrow Transplantation', the IAEA has provided technical support to hospitals in Bulgaria in some essential areas of the pre-transplant conditioning regime that are key to improving cancer treatment in the country. These include optimizing total body irradiation treatment and dose, and reducing the incidence and severity of a significant and usually fatal complication called a transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GVHD). TA-GVHD may occur in several clinical conditions, such as autologous bone marrow transplant or peripheral blood stem cell transplant. To avoid this kind of complication, patients should receive irradiated cellular blood components throughout the period of their conditioning regime.
With the support of the TC project, a blood irradiator was purchased for the Queen Giovanna University Hospital (QGUH) in Sofia for irradiation of blood components to prevent the occurrence of TA-GVHD. A new Linear Accelerator (LINAC), which is the best tool to carry out total body irradiation, was also provided through the project. The LINAC was installed at the Queen Giovanna University Hospital in 2010, making its Radiotherapy Clinic the first and only one in the country capable of performing total body irradiation.
