[Search for bone marrow donors for patients with hematologic-oncologic diseases].

In recent years, bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has been used as a curative treatment for patients with intractable hematopoietic disorders, such as leukemia. However, lacking other options, only 30 percent of patients will have an HLA-identical family-member bone marrow donor. For patients without HLA-identical family members, HLA-identical, MLC non-reactive unrelated donors have been used. However it is very difficult to find HLA-compatible donors from an unrelated donor registry, due to the highly polymorphic HLA-system. Therefore, we need approximately 6-12 months to find an HLA-matched donor who would agree to donate bone marrow.