Bone Marrow Transplants Are Increasing World-WideThe argument that bone-marrow-donor compensation can lead to an increase in donors is scientifically invalid.
Dec. 2, 2013 3:07 p.m. ET
The argument that bone-marrow-donor compensation can lead to an increase in the pool of bone-marrow donors ("
Rationing Bone Marrow," Review & Outlook, Nov. 25) is well-meaning in intent, but scientifically invalid.
The registry, both in the U.S. and around the world, has grown substantially over the years, with increasing numbers of patients being able to find donors, sometimes through international cooperation, with many lives saved each year. For those patients unable to find a donor, the problem is not an issue of inadequate volunteer donor numbers, but rather the rarity of the patient's particular genetic makeup. Thus, compensating donors will not solve this genetic problem. In addition, bone marrow or blood stem cells are the blood-producing and immunologic organ that is transplanted to the patient and has more similarities to other organ-transplant recipients, rather than to blood donation.
What has increased the numbers of patients undergoing a curative stem-cell transplant is the funding of science that has increased the stem-cell options for patients, including the use of umbilical-cord-blood stem-cell transplant, and now half-matched family members, including parents and siblings. Unlike the early days of the registry, the numbers of patients who are able to undergo transplant through these donor types have increased, further reducing the gap for those people of rarer genetic backgrounds who lack a family or matched unrelated donor.
It is the funding of the science of understanding stem cells and immune tolerance that is increasing our ability to transplant all who are in need. Continued support of basic and clinical science research is what will lead to these solutions.
The research that is being done across the U.S. and around the world in this area is helping us develop safer and more effective cures of many different disorders. The cuts to the research budget of the National Institutes of Health have the most potential to damage our ability to cure patients and not the continued ban on compensation.
Compensation, in short, is a false issue and misses the point of how stem-cell transplantation has evolved as the most common stem-cell therapy in medicine to cure both inherited and acquired disorders.
Stephen J. Forman, M.D.
Duarte, Calif.
The author is chairman of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at the City of Hope National Medical Center. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304011304579222490665044308
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