There sure is but it's not available everywhere… yet. Over the years doctors and scientists have been hard at work looking for new ways to expand the donor pool. Recently they discovered that manipulating some of the procedures during the transplant process can produce successful results for related donors who have at least 50% of the identical HLA genes as the patient.
This is done by reducing the amount of chemotherapy administered before the transplant which is just enough to prevent rejection of the donor cells. Three days after the transplant doctors administer another chemotherapy drug called cyclophosphamide which helps to train the donated cells to accept their new body. Only some hospitals across the nation offer this treatment, however if continued success is seen most patients with a healthy sibling, parent, or child should have a suitable matching donor.
According to Johns Hopkins, trials have seen similar success rates to that of fully matched transplants. Also according to their website “Johns Hopkins is currently the only center offering this type of transplantation for chronic leukemias, multiple myeloma and myeloproliferative disorders; other centers consider this treatment only for acute leukemias or lymphomas”
This is also great news for sickle cell and senior aged patients because of the reduced regiments of chemotherapy treatment.
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