This year’s World Blood Cancer Day push: Sign up as bone marrow donor
On May 28, advocates aiming to raise awareness of myeloma, other cancers
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For World Blood Cancer Day this May 28 — a day when advocates around the globe join forces to raise awareness and push for better treatment — supporters are urging all individuals to consider signing up as bone marrow donors to potentially help those affected by myeloma and other blood cancers.
“World Blood Cancer Day (WBCD) is a global movement to raise awareness and drive action in the fight against blood cancers,” DKMS (Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei), an international nonprofit bone marrow donor center based in Germany, states on its website. “It’s a day to recognize the lives lost, celebrate survivors, and — most importantly — help those still searching for a donor.”
Encouraging people without blood cancers to sign up as potential bone marrow donors is a major focus of this year’s advocacy day. The bone marrow is a spongy tissue inside bones that houses the stem cells responsible for making new blood cells and immune cells. Many forms of blood cancer are characterized by problems in the bone marrow; for example, myeloma is defined by the abnormal growth of immune cells called plasma cells in this spongy tissue.
A bone marrow transplant, also known as a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, is a procedure that aims to wipe out a patient’s existing bone marrow stem cells and replace them with stem cells from a healthy donor. For people with certain blood cancers, this procedure can be curative, eliminating cancer cells and allowing the body to make a fresh supply of new healthy blood cells.
Usually, people with myeloma undergo an autologous stem cell transplant, which uses their own stem cells. In some cases, however, they may also undergo a transplant using stem cells from a healthy donor.
For a bone transplant to be performed safely, the patient and their donor must be closely matched on a panel of genetic variants that affect how immune cells recognize threats. Without this matching, the donated cells are likely to either not implant properly or produce immune cells that attack the rest of the body’s healthy tissue.
Over 70% of patients don’t have matching family member donors
Finding an appropriate donor can be a major hurdle. According to DKMS, about 70% of people who need a bone marrow transplant do not have a matching donor in their family.
That’s why DKMS and similar organizations, such as the U.S.-based National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, are constantly seeking volunteers willing to register as potential donors.
Signing up is very simple — all it takes is requesting a swab kit from DKMS or another organization, then sending in cheek swabs to identify genetic markers and find potential matches. If a match is found, volunteers will be contacted about potentially undergoing the transplant, which generally involves taking medications to mobilize blood stem cells from the bone marrow, followed by a blood draw to collect the cells.
In addition to encouraging volunteers to sign up as potential bone marrow donors, DKMS is encouraging members of the blood cancer community to raise awareness about the disease via social media. The organization’s website offers graphics and other tools to help spread the word.
Veeda Lifesciences, a company that supports pharmaceutical research, said on its website that this day of awareness “helps increase public understanding of blood cancers, encourages early detection, promotes stem cell donation, and highlights the need for continued research.”
On Saturday, May 30, following World Blood Cancer Day, the U.S. advocacy group Blood Cancer United is hosting its annual Leukemia Ball, a black-tie event that raises funds to support research to fight blood cancers. Registration and more information are available online. According to the nonprofit’s website, the ball has raised more than $76 million for this cause since 1988.
