The National Marrow Donor Program: improving access to hematopoietic cell transplantation

Area of Science:

• Hematology
• Immunology
• Public Health

Background:

• The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), established in 1986, operates as Be The Match Registry.
• It connects patients requiring stem cell transplants with volunteer donors and cord blood units (CBUs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail the NMDP's growth and its impact on increasing access to unrelated donor hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).
• To highlight the NMDP's efforts in improving transplant likelihood and timeliness for diverse patient populations.
• To state the NMDP's future goal of facilitating 10,000 HCTs annually.

Main Methods:

• Aggressive recruitment to the Be The Match Registry and international registry collaborations.
• Development of programs and initiatives to enhance search efficiency and transplant access.
• Utilizing SEER data to estimate the number of patients who could benefit from HCT.

Main Results:

• The NMDP registry now includes over 9.5 million adult donors in the U.S. and more than 18.5 million worldwide.
• Access to nearly 165,000 NMDP-affiliated CBUs and nearly 600,000 worldwide.
• Facilitated over 5,500 transplants in 2011, totaling over 50,000 since 1986.
• Increased likelihood of finding matching donors/CBUs across all races/ethnicities and decreased transplant times.
• Improved transplant access, particularly for minority racial/ethnic patient groups.

Conclusions:

• The NMDP has significantly expanded donor and CBU availability, improving transplant outcomes.
• The organization has successfully enhanced the efficiency and accessibility of HCT, especially for underserved populations.
• The NMDP is poised to meet its ambitious goal of 10,000 annual transplants, leveraging its expertise and infrastructure.