Toward an optimal global stem cell donor recruitment strategy

Area of Science:

• Immunogenetics
• Hematology
• Public Health

Background:

• Matching probabilities (MP) are crucial for assessing unrelated stem cell donor registries.
• International donor exchange is vital but requires optimized recruitment strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a framework for estimating MP for diverse patient populations.
• To identify optimal donor recruitment strategies considering international exchange.

Main Methods:

• Calculations based on 4-locus high-resolution haplotype frequencies (HF) from 21 populations.
• Simulations to determine maximal MP, optimal donor composition, and required recruitment numbers.

Main Results:

• Recruiting 500,000 same-population donors significantly increased MP for patients from Bosnia-Herzegovina (+0.25), Greece (+0.21), and Romania (+0.20).
• Minimal MP increases were observed for European Americans (+0.004), Germans (+0.01), and Hispanic Americans (+0.01).
• Optimal worldwide recruitment of 5 million donors included 3.9 million Chinese donors due to population size.

Conclusions:

• Same-population donor recruitment is essential for efficiently increasing population-specific MP.
• National strategies should prioritize domestic donor recruitment for registry enhancement.