The Need for Blood Stem Cell Donors

For patients with blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, and over 70 other life-threatening diseases, a cure exists through the transplantation of blood stem cells from donors.

Every three minutes someone in the US is diagnosed with a blood cancer.

Seventy percent of patients do not have a fully matched donor in their family. They depend on bone marrow registries to find an unrelated blood stem cell donor.

The National Marrow Donor Program's Be The Match Registry® has facilitated more than 108,000 transplants since 1987, and continues to impact more lives every year. In 2020, Be The Match facilitated cellular therapy for 6,660 people—including 6,467 transplants.

Connecting Patients with their Blood Stem Cell Donor Match

Breakdown of the Be The Match Registry® members by ethnic background
Ethnic Background Percentage
Black 11%
Native American 1%
Asian 12%
Hispanic or Latino 13%
White 57%
Multiple Race 9%
Unknown 3%

The Be The Match Registry® is the world's most diverse blood stem cell donor registry. Every search through Be The Match provides patients with access to more than 39 million potential donors and nearly 806,000 cord blood units throughout the world.

Because genetic markers used in matching are inherited, donors are most likely to match someone who shares the same ethnic background.

A patient's likelihood of having a matched, available blood stem cell donor on the Be The Match Registry® ranges from 29 percent to 79 percent, depending on their ethnic background.

Donating Bone Marrow, Peripheral Blood Stem Cells (PBSC) or Umbilical Cord Blood

A blood stem cell transplant replaces a patient's unhealthy blood-forming cells with healthy ones. The cells used in these transplants come from three sources: bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) and umbilical cord blood.

Adults may be asked to donate one of two ways:

  • About 80 percent of the time, a patient's doctor requests a PBSC donation, a non-surgical, outpatient procedure similar to donating platelets or plasma.
  • About 20 percent of the time, a patient's doctor requests bone marrow, an invasive, outpatient procedure that takes place at a hospital. General or regional anesthesia is always used.

A third source of cells used in transplants is cord blood, which is collected from the umbilical cord and placenta immediately after a baby is born. It is stored at a public cord blood bank and the cord blood unit is listed on the Be The Match Registry®. There is no cost for parents to donate cord blood.

Joining the Be The Match Registry®

The public can join the Be The Match Registry® online at my.BeTheMatch.org/nysdoh. To join, people need to meet age and health guidelines and be willing to donate to any patient in need. Registration involves completing a health history form and giving a swab of cheek cells.

More young people of diverse racial and ethnic heritage are needed now to help patients searching for a match. Everyone 18-40 who meets health guidelines is eligible to join the registry at no cost. People between the ages of 18 and 35 are most urgently needed since they are requested by transplant doctors most often and research shows that these donors provide the greatest chance for blood stem cell transplant success.

In 2020, Be The Match added more than 325,000 potential donors in the U.S. to its registry. 33%—nearly 108,000—of the potential donors who joined the Be The Match Registry® in 2020 were ethnically diverse.

The most important thing registry members can do is stay committed to donating if identified as the best match for a patient. As volunteers, people are never under any legal obligation to donate and their decision is always respected. However, because a late decision not to donate can be life-threatening to a patient, potential donors should think seriously about their commitment before deciding to join the Be The Match Registry®.

Likelihood of Finding a Matched Available Adult Donor by Patient Ethnic Background:

Ethnic Background Rollup Average
Black 29%
Native American 60%
Asian 47%
Hispanic 48%
White 79%

* Data supplied by the National Marrow Donor Program

Genetic typing used to match donors and patients is much more complex than matching blood type. In fact, the blood type of stem cell donors and recipients doesn't need to be the same. The patient's blood type will change to the donor's blood type after transplant.

How to Join the Registry

To sign up for the Be The Match Registry® and to receive a free buccal (cheek) swab kit:

Note: Information on this page was adapted from the National Marrow Donor Program