It’s a life-saving treatment for people with leukemia, lymphoma and many other diseases.
First, patients undergo chemotherapy and/or radiation to destroy their diseased marrow. Then a donor’s healthy blood cells are given directly into the patient’s bloodstream, where they can begin to function and multiply.

In order for a patient’s body to accept these healthy blood cells, the donor’s tissue type needs to match the patient’s type as closely as possible.

A match occurs when one person’s tissue type is very similar or identical to another’s. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) testing determines whether a donor and patient is a good match. HLA antigens are found on most cells in your body. Your immune system uses HLA to recognize which cells belong in your body and which do not. The closer the match between the patient's HLA and yours, the better for the patient.

Racial and ethnic heritage are very important factors.
Because HLA tissue types are inherited, patients are most likely to match someone of their own race or ethnicity.

Donors of these backgrounds are especially needed:

• Black or African American
• American Indian or Alaska Native
• Asian
• Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
• Hispanic or Latino
• Mixed heritage

Steps of Bone Marrow & PBSC Donation

The first step to becoming a bone marrow donor is to join the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry. Doctors search our Registry to find donors for their patients who need a transplant. If a doctor selects you as a suitable match, you will be asked to donate either bone marrow or blood cells.

1. Join the Registry
2. Stay committed and available
3. Attend an information session
4. Receive a physical exam
5a. Bone marrow donation - 5a.1. Side effects and recovery
Or
5b. PBSC Donation - 5b.1. Side effects and recovery
6. Follow-up

We cannot predict the likelihood because there is so much diversity in tissue types. You may never be identified as a match for someone needing a transplant.
Or if yours is a common tissue type, you may be identified along with a number of other potential donors who match a patient. The patient’s doctor decides which donors will be contacted. If we call to say you are a match for a patient, you may turn out to be the only one who can save the patient’s life.

We will ask you for another blood or cheek swab sample to make sure you are the best possible match for the patient. If the match is confirmed, we will schedule an information session so you can learn more about the donation process, risks and side effects.

Though almost all-patient information is confidential, we can tell you the patient’s age, gender and disease. We can also tell you the type of donation the patient’s doctor has requested—either marrow or cells collected from the blood, called peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation.

If you consent, we will schedule a physical exam for you. The exam helps ensure that donating would not pose any special risks for either you or the patient.
When you are cleared to donate, your marrow or PBSC donation will be scheduled at the nearest NMDP center.

Because it might take several years until you are selected as the best available donor for a patient, when the time comes doctors will review your health history and examine you to make sure it is safe — for both you and the patient — to donate. The guidelines below explain some of the factors that may make you medically ineligible to donate.

1. Age
2. AIDS/HIV
3. Allergies
4. Arthritis
5. Asthma
6. Autoimmune Diseases
7. Back, Neck, Hip and Spine
8. Blood Pressure
9. Cancer
10. Cold/Flu
11.Depression
12. Diabetes
13. Epilepsy
14. Heart Disease
15. Hepatitis
16. Immunizations
17. Lyme Disease
18. Medications
19. Organ or Tissue Transplant
20. Piercing (Body, Skin, Ear)
21. Pregnancy
22. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
23 Tattoos
24. Travel
25.Tuberculosis (TB)
26. Weight

Donors never pay for donating, and are never paid to donate.

You have the right to change your mind at any time. Donating is always voluntary.

If you decide you do not want to donate, let us know right away. That way we can continue the search for another donor without dangerous—even life- threatening—delays for the patient.
Luke (left) was almost two years old when Randy (right)

Adult donors undergo one of two procedures:

• Marrow donation
• PBSC donation

Risks and side effects depend on the procedure used.

Marrow donation
This is a surgical outpatient procedure. While donors receive anesthesia, doctors use needles to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of the pelvic bone. The donor’s marrow completely replaces itself within four to six weeks. After donation, donors can expect to feel some soreness in the lower back for a few days or longer. Most donors are back to their usual routine in a few days.

PBSC donation
This is a non-surgical outpatient procedure. Donors receive daily injections of a drug called filgrastim for five days before the collection, to increase the number of blood-forming cells in the bloodstream. Then through a process called aphaeresis, a donor’s blood is removed through a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells. The remaining blood is returned to the donor through the other arm. Donors may experience headache or bone or muscle aches for several days before collection. These are side effects of the filgrastim injections and disappear shortly after donation.

When you join the Registry, you agree to donate by whichever method is needed. The patient’s doctor asks for either marrow or PBSC, depending on what is best for the patient.

Your NMDP donor center coordinator will follow up with you until you are able to resume normal activity.

While transplantation is a life-saving therapy, not all recipients survive. Sometimes their body cannot withstand pre-transplant chemotherapy and radiation. Sometimes patient complications occur after the transplant. But for many recipients, a transplant is successful or the best and only option. They would almost certainly die without it.

Your recipient’s transplant center may provide up to three updates within the first year after transplant. Some transplant centers do not provide updates. During the first year after transplant, some centers allow anonymous communication between you and your recipient. Some centers allow direct contact between donors and recipients in one or more years after the transplant, if both you and your recipient agree.

If you match a patient, we will need to find you quickly. Updating your contact information is crucial! Contact us if:

• Your phone number, name, or address has changed
• You have any major changes to your health
• You want to be removed from the Registry

Just log on to icla.org/update or call us at our toll free number 1.866.FDN.ICLA

To find out if you have joined National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Donor Registry, please click here. (Link to MDP website to check if in the registry)

If you are not in the NMDP Registry yet. Please contact us to complete your application process.