Odds of being a bone-marrow match?!
Question:
Odds of being a bone-marrow match?
I was touched by a local news story about a young woman in a town about an hour from me needing a bone marrow transplant. They are testing potential donors next week, but I got to wondering about the odds of an un-related person being a match. Anyone know?
Answers:
It is very slim. I am about to go through the same process. A full blooded sibling has the best chances of a match, then parents or children.
The matching is based on HLA tissue typing of the bone marrow (blood). Since that is DNA based, chances of unrelated match is slim, expecially is the patient has a rare tissue type. It is possible though. I was unable to find an adult donar, but was able to find 2 cord blood units that were a match for me. I will be going into the hosp next week for the transplant.
Signing up for the Marrow Donor Registry is a great thing to do whether you are a match for this girl or not. They will take a couple vials from your vein. It sounds like they are having a drive for this person? If that is the case it should be free to sign up. Most times if you sign up via mail or at aa donor center they charge like $50. They do this because the dna and tissue typing is VERY expensive.
If you are found as a match for someone else, they will contact you. If you are still willing to donate, they will bring you in for further testing to ensure that you are a match and still in good health. Chances are you will never know who you are donating to or where they are because of hippa laws.
It is also great to donate any blood products that you can as someone else said. Chances are again it will not go to her, but there are many people in need of all blood products.
Check out the NMDP's (National Marrow Donor's Program) Website for more info:
http://www.marrow.org/donor/abcs/index.h...