AAPI STEM CELL/BONE MARROW DONATION DRIVE

Background
Thousands of patients with blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma need blood stem cell transplant to survive. Matching the stem cell or bone marrow donors to patients is based on Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing. HLA are Proteins or markers found on most cells in our body and they are inherited from our biological parents and are largely depend on ethnicity.

Problem
In general, 70% of patients needing a stem cell transplant don’t have a fully matched donor in their family and approximately 12,000 patients per year depend on transplant from an unrelated donor to survive. These numbers are even dire for cancer patients of Indian ethnicity as the donor pool of Indian ethnicity is very limited.