What is Marrow?
Marrow is a substance found inside bones. It resembles blood and contains stem cells, which produce red blood cells, white blood cells and other blood components important for fighting infection, carrying oxygen and helping to control bleeding.
Stem cells, the cells that transplant patients need to make new healthy marrow, usually live inbone marrow, but are also released, in small numbers, into the circulating (peripheral) blood. There are several treatments that will dramatically increase the release of stem cells into the circulating blood so that enough stem cells for transplant can be collected directly from the bloodstream.
Why Register to Donate Bone Marrow?
Every year, thousands of adults and children need bone marrow transplants; a procedure which may be their only chance for survival. Although some patients with aplastic anemia, leukemia or other cancers have a genetically matched family member who can donate, about 70 percent do not. These patients' lives depend on finding an unrelated individual with a compatible tissue type, often within their own ethnic group, who is willing to donate marrow.
As of January 31, 2000 the National Marrow Donor Program has facilitated 9335 unrelated bone marrow transplants. Also as of this date the National Registry has over 3.8 million volunteer donors. There is a critical need for more volunteer donors. Many patients, especially people of color, cannot find a compatible donor among those on the registry. Patients and donors must have matching tissue types, and these matches are found most often between people of the same ethnic group. A large, ethnically diverse group of prospective donors will give more patients a chance for survival.
Marrow Donor Eligibility
Donors joining the NMDP Registry must be between 18-60 years old, in good health and meet the NMDP donor eligibility guidelines. Donors who are not eligible to join the national registry can help patients in other ways such as making a financial contribution to tissue type other donors.
Steps to Donating Marrow
If you match the tissue type of a patient seeking a donor, additional testing will confirm the results and you will meet with marrow donor counselors who will help you make an informed decision about donating marrow.
The marrow collection process usually does not require an overnight stay in the hospital. The procedure itself is painless, because it is performed under anesthesia. But, for an average of two weeks following the procedure, most donors experience sore hips and some must restrict their activities. Most donors also report that donating marrow is a very positive experience. Many marrow donors are willing to donate again in the future.
The donated marrow is transfused to the patient, whose diseased cells have been destroyed by intensive chemotherapy. In time, the donated marrow engrafts and begins producing healthy blood cells.
Steps to Donating Peripheral Blood Stem Cells (PBSC)
For four or five days before the PBSC donation, the donor is given an injection of a medication called Filgrastim to increase the number of stem cells released into the blood stream.
After receiving the medication, peripheral blood stem cells are collected by apheresis, the same process to collect platelets. The donor's blood is removed through a sterile needle placed in a vein in one arm, and passed through an apheresis machine that separates out the stem cells. The remaining blood, minus the stem cells, is returned to the donor through a sterile needle in the other arm.
Unlike marrow donation, PBSC donation does not require anesthesia which is the most significant risk of marrow donation. PBSC donors experience symptoms such as bone pain and muscle pain prior to the collection while receiving Filgrastim. |