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| Unrelated Donor Search |
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| Since you do not have a
suitable donor in your family, your transplant
center can search the Marrow Donor
Registry(India), MDR(I) for an unrelated donor
for you. Please initiate your search early. |
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| It can take a long time
to select a Donor and
prepare for your transplant. Beginning the Donor
Search early may improve your chances of getting
a transplant when you need one. |
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| The Search Process |
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| Any transplant doctor
can ask for a free preliminary search of the
MDR(I) for you. When your doctor submits such a
request, he will include your HLA tissue typing
data which is necessary to match you to your
potential donors. |
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| The MDR(I)
sends the preliminary search results to your
doctor. These early results may show a few
potential matches or no matches. Further testing
is needed to find out which, if any, of the
potential donors are suitable for you. |
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| Since the
further search requires higher resolution HLA
typing of the potential donors, the donors need
to be recalled for fresh blood samples. These
tests are expensive and the patient will have to
bear the cost for the same. |
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| Both the
transplant physician as well as MDR(I) will
again explain the donation procedure to the
donor who is finally selected. |
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| The transplant
physician will arrange for the collection of
stem cells from the donor and their proper
transportation to the transplant
center |
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| Human Leukocyte
Antigens (HLA) |
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| HLA typing is
used to match patients and donors for
Stem cell transplant. Currently, the HLA
laboratories of the MDR(I) are doing medium
resolution HLA typing of the enrolled voluntary
donors. Thus, results of HLA-A, HLA-B and
HLA-DRB testing are being stored in the database
of the MDR(I) by Syntel. |
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A close match
between the patient's and the donor's HLA type
can reduce the risk of a transplant failure. A
transplant failure maybe due to:
1. Your
immune system attacking the donor's stem
cells(graft rejection) OR
2. The donor's
immune system attacking the recepient's marrow
and other tissues( graft versus host
disease-GVHD) after successful
engraftment. |
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| Importance of
Race and Ethnicity in tissue match |
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| Since tissue
typing, like other features such as color of
hair and eyes, is inherited, the best chance of
finding a match is from someone of the same race
and ethnicity. In India, with its diverse and
varied ethnic population mix, there is a special
need to recruit donors that most closely match
the tissue type of the patient. Hence, it is
important to make a database of donors as large
as possible and include citizens from all
geographical regions of the country. |
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