DONORMO

Advances and achievements of DONORMO

ACHIEVEMENTS

Until 2005, 40 unrelated transplants have been practiced on Mexican patients using unrelated donors or umbilical chord cells units, most of them provided by the NY Blood Center and others by BACECU and 7 with unrelated donors from DONORMO. On November 2005, one of our couriers carried an unrelated stem cell unit for a patient in Europe. The patient received the transplant 48 hours after the extraction of the blood stem cells from the donor in Mexico.

We have participated since 1989 in over 400 of the 1500 bone marrow transplants performed in Mexico. The first bone marrow transplant with an unrelated donor from DONORMO performed in Mexico, occurred in May 2001 at the Ángeles de Las Lomas Hospital. Four more have been done and 6  with partially compatible  parents used as donors. Every time DONORMO and the Dept. of Inmunogenetics, InDRE, have handled all technical issues related with  the selection, molecular typing, cryopreservation, delivery of the unit to the transplant center and molecular follow up of the graft.

2,066 searches have been performed for Mexican, Hispanic  and other patients worldwide, with ethnically distinct  composition .

We enforce technical and scientific growth trough international meetings supported by the National  Academy of Medicine, The National University in Mexico, UNAM and the Secretary of Health. International didiactic and practical courses in Histocompatibility and Molecular Genetics are yearly academically sposnsored by the American Board of Histocompatibility and Inmunogenetics, The  Graduate Division of the Faculty of Medicine, UNAM, the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI) and the Secretary of Health.

We have the only Mexican Laboratory internationally certified by ASHI  for clinical work,  one out of the only two in Latin America.

CURRENT SITUATION

Day after day, in the whole world the number of people who are affected with hematological diseases increases and so the tragedy for thousands of families. Each year more than 30,000 people are diagnosed with life threatening diseases like leukemia, severe aplastic anemia and other blood related diseases of genetic origin for which bone marrow transplantation can be its only life alternative.

In Mexico there are almost 6000 patients/year who awaits for a bone marrow transplant.

One of the most important limitations  to receive a transplant is compatibility of the HLA complex;  therefore, the first option is to find a donor within the family of the patient. Only 35% of patients will find an identical donor within the family; for the others, their only hope of survival will be to find an unrelated compatible donor. Therefore, bone marrow unrelated registries were created.

The International Bone Marrow Transplant Register (IBMTR) collects information from 492 sites and indicates that up to 2004 115,000 allogeneic BMT ( related and unrelated donor - recipient ) have been performed; of these, 15,000 where performed in 2000 alone.

75 unrelated bone marrow donor registries exist in 41 countries around the world and  33 Umbilical cord stem cell registers in 21 countries. The official numbers were 9,580,536 unrelated  donors and 198,000 Umbilical cord units up to September, 2005.

In Mexico our DONORMO has only 5,100 (Dec. 2005) registered donors and theres 6000 cases/year awaiting for a bone marrow transplant. The closer the ethnical background between donor and recipient is, the greater the probability of finding an HLA  match.

The NMDP (National Marrow Donor Program) in USA,  has over 5 million registered donors, 73% Caucasian, 9% African-American, 8% Hispanic, 7% Oriental and 2% Native-American.

This calls our attention since it is relevant  to increase the efforts in Mexico and other countries that represent  ethnical groups  other than Caucasians  all over the world, so a compatible donor can be found to help  survive patients of different ethnical composition. Another source for stem cells is  as already mentioned, the  UC which is disposed after delivery.

There's more than 150,000 Umbilical Cord Units in several Altruistic Banks all over the world. In Mexico, The recently created umbilical cord blood bank (BACECU) has only 75 available units (Feb 2006) to offer to patients. Cost will be reduced by 40% with the  presence of Public Umbilical Cord Cells Banks, since units  are also available for the international transplant centers at the  international cost. This will make BACECU  financially self suffcient at  mid term, creating an important social benefit for low income patients. BACECU will be able to donate  units for low resources children. Only with great team effort, education, financial support of the society  and an intense dedication, a bigger number of patients will be cured with this procedures.