Vietnam performs world's first stem cell transplant to treat pulmonary fibrosis

The American Journal of Case Reports (USA) has just announced the world's first successful case of stem cell transplantation to treat pulmonary fibrosis, performed at Vinmec Hospital, Hanoi.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Liem and his team performed stem cell transplantation for the patient.

In its October 2017 issue, the world's leading prestigious scientific journal, American Journal of Case Reports, published a research paper on the world's first successful stem cell transplant to treat pulmonary fibrosis. The paper was conducted by a group of scientists from the Vinmec Stem Cell Research Institute - Gene Technology led by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Liem.

The case of stem cell transplantation for pulmonary fibrosis was a premature baby born at 30 weeks, weighing 1.5 kg. In May 2016, the patient was hospitalized at only 4 months old, in a state of infection due to prolonged mechanical ventilation. The child was at risk of death due to recurrent infections and increased pulmonary artery pressure because traditional treatments were not effective.

After a period of treatment, in September 2016, Vinmec Hospital performed a stem cell transplant on the child. Four weeks later, the child was able to breathe on his own and was completely weaned off oxygen. Currently, the baby is 22 months old, developing at the same rate as a full-term baby.

“World literature has not yet recorded traditional methods to help completely treat severe pulmonary fibrosis in premature infants. Meanwhile, stem cell transplantation can be completely effective because of its ability to prevent and reduce the process of pulmonary fibrosis, and can differentiate into new alveoli to help improve lung structure and function. Thanks to that, children can breathe on their own, without depending on a machine,” said Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Liem.

After this first case, the Hospital successfully performed stem cell transplants to treat pulmonary fibrosis in two other premature births at weeks 26 and 31 of pregnancy.

This breakthrough achievement has created a major turning point in the field of feeding and caring for weak premature babies. According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, each year in Vietnam there are about 100,000 premature babies in need of special care.

Of these, 30-80% of weak premature babies born at 26-28 weeks are at risk of death in the first 2 years due to pulmonary fibrosis, infection, and increased pulmonary artery pressure. This rate will increase to 80-90% when weak premature babies are born at 24-25 weeks. In particular, 50% of saved premature babies have to be hospitalized more than 5 times/year due to pneumonia.

The American Journal of Case Reports is the world's most prestigious medical journal specializing in publishing groundbreaking new treatments and diagnostics or announcing diseases discovered for the first time. Articles published in the journal will be simultaneously included in PubMed - the US electronic medical library - where valuable research works in the medical field are published so that global scientists can look up and refer to them./.

According to Baochinhphu.vn