Idea #146 for July 14th, 2009: Bone Marrow Wanted or Attracting More Minority Marrow Donors

When it comes to leukemia, chemotherapy is not always a treatment option. In those cases, doctors turn to allogeneic bone marrow transplants. This process entails harvesting some bone marrow from the blood or from the hip of a matched donor, which is later introduced into the patient’s bloodstream by infusion. The new, healthy bone marrow stem cells are then expected to produce new blood cells for the patient. Finding a donor, though, is difficult because the donor has to be genetically similar enough to the patient for the process to work right.

Among minorities, locating matching donors is especially hard. For white patients, about 88% are able to find a matching donor; for minority patients, that number is more like 60%. Part of the problem seems to be misinformation about the donation process. People believe that it is a difficult and painful process, when in fact it is neither. Another problem is lack of awareness that marrow is actually needed.

To help fight this, the National Marrow Donor Program has a website called “Be the Match.” It provides information about the process and allows potential donors to give their information. The program is also using social networking sites like Facebook an Myspace to spread their message. This is a step in the right direction, and they should also consider an advertising campaign in various media to reach out to potential minority donors to ensure that patients aren’t dying of blood cancers needlessly.

See the Marrow Donor page here and the article in the Wall St Journal here.