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Preliminary Donor Search
What Is a Preliminary Donor Search?
A preliminary donor search identifies potential stem cell donors who either share your tissue type or who have tissue types that are very similar to yours. The search consists of running computer generated lists. Volunteer stem cell donors are not contacted.
Preliminary Donor Search - Phase 1
Phase 1 of the preliminary donor search is the first step in identifying potential stem cell donors for you. Your tissue type is entered into an international database that stores a collection of tissue types from stem cell donors living around the world. The name of this international database is Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide. It takes just minutes to complete this search.
How Is It Done?
Your tissue type is entered into the Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide web site. Within seconds the computer runs a search through more than 7 million tissue types. These are the tissue types of volunteers who have joined marrow donor registries from more than 35 countries worldwide. It also includes tissue types from cord blood registries in more than 15 countries. At a glance, we will know if there are people in these registries who may share your tissue type. The computer generates a list that includes the tissue type of the volunteer and the donor registry that has registered the volunteer.
Preliminary Donor Search - Phase 2
Phase 2 of the preliminary donor search targets the specific donor registry that lists volunteers whose tissue types are either the same as yours or very similar to yours. Using the results from Phase 1, we select the donor registries that list your potential stem cell donors. We send each of these registries a request to run a donor search specifically for you. The registry is sent your tissue type as well as basic information about your disease.
Receiving More Specific Information
The donor registry runs a search of their database. This generates a report that lists more specific information about the volunteer stem cell donor. Each donor is identified by a code name. The list includes this code name, the latest tissue typing results on the donor, the donor's age and gender. Some donor registries include the donor's weight and blood type.
Results
It generally takes one to three days to receive the detailed search results from individual donor registries. The results are carefully reviewed. A list of potential stem cell donors is compiled. Our AB&MT team discusses the results and decides if any of these potential donors should be activated for confirmatory typing.
What We Know About The Donor
The following is a summary of what we do know and what we do not know about any particular volunteer listed in a marrow donor registry.
Donor: What We Know
Sometime ago, a person volunteered to join a marrow donor program. They either were already tissue typed for another purpose or they gave permission to have their blood drawn and were tissue typed when they joined. They signed a consent form giving permission for their tissue type to be listed in a donor registry.
Donor: What We Do NOT Know
We do not know who this person is, why they joined a donor registry, how much they know about stem cell donation, if they are reachable, if they are healthy enough to donate, and if they want to donate.
How to Answer the Unknown
If a volunteer has been identified whose tissue typing is similar to yours, we will need to proceed to the donor testing phase to begin to answer some of the unknown questions. In the donor testing phase the donor registry attempts to contact the donor. Donor registry personnel contact the volunteer and ask them if they are interested in proceeding with testing. The volunteer's questions are answered and if they agree to go forward, they are scheduled to have their blood drawn for confirmatory typing. During the confirmatory typing phase we will answer more questions about the suitability of this volunteer as a stem cell donor for you.
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