Canadian Blood Services has put out the call for more stem-cell donors to step up across the country.
The Canadian Blood Services (CBS) agency is set to join the global celebration of stem-cell donors on World Marrow Donor Day, which happens on Saturday, Sept. 21.
In the past decade, CBS noted that more than 444,000 people across Canada joined the stem-cell registry, and more than 1,100 donated their stem cells after they were identified as matches for patients in Canada and around the world.
Bone marrow is the soft tissue inside our bones that acts as a factory, producing blood-forming stem cells, according to a CBS news release.
When diseases affect a person's bone marrow and that person cannot produce healthy stem cells, a stem-cell transplant may be the patient’s best treatment option.
Stem-cell transplants can treat more than 80 diseases and disorders including cancer, bone marrow diseases, aplastic anemia, inherited immune system and metabolic disorders, stated the release. Nearly 1,000 people in Canada are waiting for the right donor for a life-saving stem-cell transplant.
Canada's blood services agency is actively recruiting healthy, committed volunteer stem-cell donors through the Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry.
The registry is part of an international community of stem-cell registries, which includes 42 million potential donors worldwide.
The agency said finding the right donor match for a patient can be like finding a needle in a haystack.
“Only 25 per cent of patients will be able to find a match within their biological family. This means the remaining 75 per cent of patients will need an unrelated volunteer stem cell donor to be their match,” said Kathy Ganz, director of stem cells for Canadian Blood Services.
“They are more likely to find a matching donor among those who share their ethnic ancestry. That’s why it’s important that Canada's national stem registry be as diverse as our country," she added.
Currently, people who are Black, Indigenous, Asian, Hispanic or of mixed-race heritage collectively make up only about one-third of registrants (35 per cent) while the majority of registrants are white (65 per cent). Indigenous registrants make up 1.5 per cent of the registry, according to the news release.
CBS is encouraging all Canadians to sign up and register.
