Report of the Japanese Central Bone Marrow Data Center.

The Japan Marrow Donor Program started to recruit donors at the beginning of 1992 with the financial support of the Japanese government, and the first unrelated bone marrow transplantation arranged through this program was performed in 1993. Since 1992, about 82,000 donors and 4,400 patients have been registered. At least one HLA-identical donor has been found for 60% of the patients in the first search after the patients register with the JMDP, and as of the end of September 1996, 880 patients had received bone marrow transplants from unrelated donors. The results of 19.7% of registered patients having received bone marrow transplants and 1.1% of registered donors having donated far exceed our forecasts. This is attributed to the high frequency of several haplotypes in the Japanese. However, no HLA-identical donors have been found for approximately 800 registered patients so far. Thus, it is still necessary to increase the number of donors registered with the JMDP.