S'pore claims medical first

S'pore claims medical first

SINGAPORE: A hospital said on Monday it had performed the world's first unrelated cord blood transplants for two patients without the use of chemotherapy.

Cord blood transplants involve taking blood cells from umbilical cords to enable patients to grow normal blood cells.

The two operations, which took place in November and December at the Singapore General Hospital, were performed on a Singaporean suffering from leukemia and an Indonesian with multiple myeloma.

"High dose chemotherapy is undesirable and causes severe morbidity," the hospital said in a statement.

"It is not required in both Mr. Huang and Mr. Slamet (Sampoerno)," the hospital said, referring to the two patients.

It will take three years to determine if Huang will be cured completely of leukemia and for Slamet, the hospital said "his long-term outlook is promising." --AFP