Political correctness does not cut it here. Diversity is the anathema. Slight differences can be dangerous, even fatal. In the quest to find a stem cell donor for a patient who needs a transplant, it is all about matching for every racial, cultural or conceivable stereotype. Siblings have a 25 percent chance to be perfect matches for one another and are the first source tested. Some people are not content to play the numbers game. They would rather play an active hand and create the perfect match.
(This story appears in the 19 February, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Congratulations for a good article highlighting the role of ethnicity in finding a HLA match for stem cell transplant. Over the last 10 years blood forming stem cells from donated umbilical cord blood has become the preferred choice in the management of blood cancers and Thalassemia in children and young adults. We at www.jeevan are happy to have started a Public Cord Blood Bank in 2008 to address this gap. We have had three matches and one unit for released for a successful transplant in August 2011. As the commercial bankers advertise, we need a bank of blood forming stem cells for every Indian! Cheers
on Mar 30, 2012An excellent article which is both timely and crucially important to improving any health system. The additional benefit of having a national program for stem cells is that it places, throughout a country, machines for collection of stem cells (apheresis) that also allow for the harvest of blood cell products (i.e., platelets, red blood cells, granulocytes) which can vastly improve the supply of life saving blood products which support any transplantation program as well as a host of diseases.
on Feb 16, 2010This is a very timely and excellent article. With the increase in use of social media such as twitter and facebook, infiltration of mobile phone and sms services, the grassroots mechanisms to engage and empower people to register for bone marrow as well as other organ drives are now in place. These efforts can help save lives, reduce the anguish, and improve the odds of winning the 'medical lottery' faced by millions of families’ rich or poor, west or east, north or south. We are all citizens of a global world. An international registry and notification system is within our reach. Jeff Blander Co-leader Technology Innovation Working Group Harvard Initiative for Global Health (HIGH)
on Feb 16, 2010Dr. Kumar has one critical challenge to his reasoning. It is wrong to assume that a more robust donor registry would preclude the need for some families to pursue pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. There are some diseases, like Fanconi anemia, which have dismal success rates with matched unrelated donors. Success skyrockets for transplants when they come from stem cells donated by matched sibling donors. Signing up more prospective donors is a life-saving and laudable goal - it just isn't the cure-all for all diseases that could be treated with stem cell transplantation.
on Feb 17, 2010