Due to the lack of available marrow donors, doctors have been hard at work over the years developing ways to increase the donor pool for those in need. This includes using innovative techniques to finding alternative sources of marrow stem cells. The following is a list of the five types of donors currently used for marrow transplants including the new Half-match technique that is only performed at select hospitals. On the next few posts we will discuss these in more detail.
PREFERRED DONORS
HLA-matched sibling donor
The optimal donor is a histocompatible (HLA) matched sibling (brother or sister). Because siblings can receive different HLA genes from their parents there is a one in four, or 25 percent, chance that any brother or sister will have identical HLA genes as the patient.
Matched Unrelated Donor (MUD)
A MUD donor is a volunteer located on the bone marrow registry who has matching identical HLA as the patient. This is a preferred donor if there is not a sibling match.
ALTERNATIVE DONORS
Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB)
UBC are stored cord blood collections retrieved from healthy baby births. The cord blood, which is normally thrown away after a baby is born, contains a large number of stem cells.
Mismatched Unrelated Donor (MMUD)
A MMUD also known as partial match is a volunteer located on the bone marrow registry with at least 66% of the identical HLA genes as the patient.
Haploidentical (Haplo)–related donor
A Haplo donor sometimes called a half matched related donor is a parent or sibling with 50% of the identical HLA genes as the patient.
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