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Donor Identification

The importance of identifying a back-up donor for unrelated stem cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 35, pages 437–440 (2005)Cite this article

Summary:

The importance of identifying a back-up donor, once a primary suitable unrelated stem cell donor has been found, is often underestimated. Transplant centres erroneously count on the unrelated volunteer donors to be willing, available and medically fit for actual donation. According to our data, which includes 502 unrelated donor work-up procedures performed for 425 Dutch patients between 1987 and 2002, one of 11 work-ups ended in the primary requested donor failing to donate. Of all donor-related cancellations (N=46), 78% of the procedures were deferred due to medical reasons and 22% due to nonmedical reasons. Most of the donors deferred for medical reasons were female (P=0.005). In 50% of the cases for which a back-up donor was already identified, the patients were transplanted with a delay of less then 2 weeks; when no back-up donor was available, the median delay increased to 18 weeks. We strongly encourage implementing a search for at least one back-up donor in the primary search. Identifying a back-up donor can save precious time and complicated logistic rescheduling.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professors Els Goulmy and Ilias Doxiadis at the Leiden University Medical Centre, Department of Immunohematology, for a critical reading of the manuscript and for helpful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Europdonor Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands

    S M van Walraven, M B A Heemskerk, J L W T Lie & M Oudshoorn

  2. Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

    M B A Heemskerk, R M Y Barge & M Oudshoorn

  3. Erasmus Medical Centre/Daniel den Hoed, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    J J Cornelissen

  4. Department of Paediatrics, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

    R M Egeler

  5. University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    L F Verdonck & N Wulffraat

Authors
  1. S M van Walraven
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  2. M B A Heemskerk
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  3. J L W T Lie
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  4. R M Y Barge
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  5. J J Cornelissen
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  6. R M Egeler
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  7. L F Verdonck
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  8. N Wulffraat
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  9. M Oudshoorn
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Correspondence to S M van Walraven.

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van Walraven, S., Heemskerk, M., Lie, J. et al. The importance of identifying a back-up donor for unrelated stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 35, 437–440 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704812

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704812

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