The National Marrow Donor Program: how it works, accomplishments to date.

As the use of bone marrow transplantation increases, the lack of a suitable matched sibling donor for approximately 60% of patients is a growing problem. Recently, marrow transplantation has been done successfully using HLA-matched unrelated donors. In an effort to provide more donors, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) was established. It involves 50 blood banks and 20 marrow transplant centers throughout the United States. More than 20,000 HLA-typed apheresis donors from these blood banks have agreed to be listed in the NMDP registry. A preliminary search for donors has been carried out for 1,116 patients. Donors suitably matched for HLA-A and B antigens were located for 99% of the patients.