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Be a stem cell donor

Stem Cell Donation and How We Can Help

Melanie Monroe Rosen 

We all want to help Sarah—and one way we can do that is by joining the Be The Match registry. While our chances of being a good match for Sarah in particular might be small, one or more of us may be able to help someone else with a blood cancer like leukemia, lymphoma or another life-threatening blood-related disease. Here’s a bit of information, much of it gleaned from the Be The Match site and the interwebs, as I have been registered as a potential donor for a few years but not (yet!) been called upon to donate and help save someone’s life.

The basics of stem cell donation and the registry

  • Because cells from younger donors typically lead to more successful transplants, donors between the ages of 18 and 44 are in the greatest demand, but donors between the ages of 18 and 60 are welcome to join the registry, provided they meet the health guidelines (N.B. Donors in the 45 to 60 age bracket are asked to make a $100 tax-deductible contribution to cover the cost of joining; younger donors are not required to make a donation). Donors remain registered until their 61st birthday, unless they become unwilling or unable to donate. Donors are most likely to match with someone who shares their ethnic background. At the current time, about 1 in 430 members of the Be The Match registry in the U.S. will eventually donate either bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) to a patient in need.
  • Any potential match would be based on the patient’s tissue type—specifically their human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type. HLAs are proteins or markers found on most cells in our bodies and aid our immune system in recognizing which cells belong; a close match between the patient’s HLA markers and the donor’s is ideal.
  • Patients who receive a bone marrow transplant will undergo chemotherapy and sometimes radiation to eradicate the diseased marrow. Healthy blood-forming cells from a donor are then added directly to the patient’s bloodstream. 

How do I get signed up? I want to help NOW!

Register with Be The Match.

  1. Submit a swab of cheek cells (if you join online, you will receive a kit in the mail with instructions on how to do this).
  2. Keep your contact info updated with Be The Match in the coming years and donate to any patient who matches with you. If you become unwilling to donate for any reason, you are asked to respond immediately so that a patient isn’t kept waiting on someone who won’t be able to help them. 

What happens if I’m a match for a patient?

  • More testing will be requested (possibly via another cheek swab or a blood sample) to see just how exact a match you are.
  • If you’re selected as the best potential match, you’ll attend an information session to learn more about the donation process, related side effects and risks, and decide if donating is right for you. You’ll also have a physical exam before proceeding any further.

How are donations collected?

Stem cell donation involves a non-surgical procedure done in an outpatient clinic. PBSC donors are giving daily injections of a drug called filgrastim for five days, which increases the number of blood-forming cells (sometimes called blood stem cells) in the bloodstream (and may leave one feeling temporarily achy). The first day’s injection is done at a donor center or medical clinic; the next three may be given at your home, your office, or a donor center; the fifth injection will be given wherever you will undergo the donation procedure. On the same day as the fifth injection, a donor’s blood is removed via a needle from one arm, sent into a centrifuge-like machine that separates the blood-forming cells, and then returned minus those cells to the donor’s other arm, in a process called apheresis (which usually takes four to six hours). PBSC is by far the more common method of bone marrow donation these days. Recovery depends on the donor and the type of donation. Most folks are able to return to work and their regular life within one to seven days after donation.

What else should I know?

  • Donors never pay to donate stem cells, nor do they get paid for donating. All medical costs for the donation are covered by the patient’s insurance or the National Marrow Donor Program which operates the Be The Match registry, and all travel costs are reimbursed and others may be reimbursed on a case-by-case basis.
  • Though patient confidentiality is maintained, donors may be informed of the patient’s gender, age, and disease.
  • If you match a patient, stem cell donation may take up to 20 to 30 hours, not including travel time (defined as air travel or overnight hotel stays), spread out over a four- to six-week period.
  • If you think you may have already joined the registry at some point in the past and want to confirm that, you should call 800-MARROW-2.

Further reading


Want to help but can’t donate or want to do something RIGHT NOW?




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