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Instructors
Bands
Festivals
Music Stores
Radio Shows
Publications
Associations
E-mail Disccusion Groups
Other Links
Every year 10,000 patients need a marrow transplant using blood stem cells from a matching unrelated donor. At this year’s festival, learn how you can save life by visiting the Be The Match registration tables. Becoming a marrow donor involves only paperwork and a cheek swab sample. You have the power to heal, the power to save a life!
Important Website Links:
www.ribc.org
www.bethematch.org
http://join.bethematch.org/RIBC (to join online)
Myths and Facts about Marrow Donation
MYTH: Marrow donation is painful.
FACT: General or regional anesthesia is always used for this procedure. Donors feel no needle injections and
no pain during the marrow donation process. Afterward, most donors feel some pain in the lower back for a few
days or longer.
MYTH: All marrow donations involve surgery.
FACT: There are two ways to donate. The majority of donations do not involve surgery. The patient’s doctor
most commonly requests a peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation, which is non-surgical and outpatient.
If the patient’s doctor requests marrow, marrow donation is a surgical procedure, usually outpatient.
MYTH: Pieces of bone are removed from the donor.
FACT: Pieces of bone are not removed from the donor. In marrow donation, only the liquid marrow found inside
the bones is collected. In a PBSC donation, cells are collected from the bloodstream in a process similar to
donating plasma.
MYTH: Donating marrow is dangerous and weakens the donor.
FACT: Though no medical procedure is without risk, there are rarely any long-term effects from donating.
Only five percent or less of a donor’s marrow is needed to save a life. After donation, the body replaces the
donated marrow within four to six weeks. The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which operates the Be
The Match RegistrySM, screens all donors carefully before they donate to ensure they are healthy and the procedure
is safe for them. The NMDP also educates donors, answers questions every step of the way, and follows
up with donors after donation.
MYTH: Marrow donation involves a lengthy recovery process.
FACT: PBSC donors take the drug filgrastim for five days leading up to donation and may have symptoms such
as headache, bone or muscle pain, nausea, insomnia or fatigue during this time. These symptoms nearly always
disappear one or two days after donating, and the donor is back to normal. Marrow donors can expect to feel
fatigue, some soreness or pressure in their lower back and perhaps some discomfort walking. Marrow donors
can expect to be back to work, school and other activities within one to seven days. The average time for all
symptoms to disappear is 21 days.
MYTH: Donors have to pay for the donation procedure.
FACT: Donors never pay for donating and are never paid to donate. All medical costs are paid by the patient’s
medical insurance or by the patient, sometimes with assistance from the National Marrow Donor Program
(NMDP). The NMDP, which operates the Be The Match Registry, reimburses donors for travel costs, and may
reimburse other costs on a case-by-case basis. Although a donor never pays to donate, many people do pay
the tissue-typing cost when they join the registry.
National Marrow Donor Program®
Key Messages, Facts & Figures
About Us
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and Be The Match FoundationSM are nonprofit
organizations dedicated to creating an opportunity for all patients to receive
the bone marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant they need, when they need it.
The Need
Every year, more than 10,000 Americans are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases
such as leukemia or lymphoma, and their best or only hope of a cure is a transplant from
an unrelated donor or cord blood unit.
Most patients (about 70 percent) in need of a transplant do not have a matching donor
in their family. They depend on the NMDP’s Be The Match Registry® to find an unrelated
donor or cord blood unit.
Adequate financial resources are essential to timely donor searches and post-transplant
care. In 2009, more than 1,800 requests for assistance were approved and more than
$5 million was made available to qualifying patients through the Be The Match Foundation
Patient Assistance Program.
Be The Match Registry®
The NMDP operates the Be The Match Registry, the world’s largest and most diverse
registry of volunteer marrow donors and donated cord blood units.
A patient's doctor can contact the NMDP to search the Be The Match Registry, which
provides a single point of access to more than 8 million potential donors and 160,000 cord
blood units. There is also access to an additional 5 million donors and 240,000 cord blood
units listed on international registries.
On average, 48,000 new potential donors join the Be The Match Registry each month.
More than 575,000 new potential donors joined in 2009.
The NMDP facilitated more than 4,800 marrow and cord blood transplants in 2009, an
average of more than 400 transplants each month.
Since it began operations in 1987, the NMDP has facilitated more than 40,000 marrow and
cord blood transplants for patients who do not have matching donors in their families.
Center for Cord Blood®
The NMDP’s Center for Cord Blood is a leader in cord blood banking with 27 public cord
blood banks. The Be The Match Registry provides the largest single listing of donated
cord blood units in the United States, with more than 160,000 cord blood units.
The NMDP’s network of public cord blood banks recruited more than 18,000 cord
blood units in 2009.
In 2009, the NMDP provided more than 1,000 cord blood units for transplant, an
increase of more than 11 percent over 2008.
Umbilical cord blood expands access to transplant therapy for minority patients from
racially and ethnically diverse communities.
In 2009, 42 percent of transplant patients from racially and ethnically diverse
communities received a cord blood transplant.
Forty-four percent of the cord blood units listed by the NMDP cord blood banks are
from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.