About The Registry
A Every year over 120,000 Indians are diagnosed with blood cancers and another 10000 children are born with diseases like Thalassemia. They can hope for a 60 to 80% chance of cure, if they find matching stem cell donors. The chance of finding a donor in the family is less than 30%. The match is highly ethnicity dependent and hence the chance of finding a match in an Indian registry is over 70%..
Stem Cells from donated cord blood can help children with a body weight less than 30 Kg. Other patients will need a larger number of cells and that can only be obtained from a donor either as Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC) donation or Bone Marrow Donation.
Bone Marrow Registry is a database of potential stem cell donors, whose Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA) is typed by Jeevan and stored in a server. When a patient needs a donor, the matching donor is identified from the database. He / she is then counseled, medically examined and then encouraged to donate stem cells. These stem cells are used for the treatment of patients.
Eligibility
- You must be between the ages of 18 and 50
- You must have donated blood or platelets at-least twice during the last two years
- You must be healthy and free from any disease requiring long-term medication
- You must not have had jaundice in the past
Who cannot donate Stem Cells?
If any of the following apply to you unfortunately you will not be eligible to join the registry:
- You are aged under 18 or over 50.
- You weigh under 50kg or are severely overweight (a BMI of more than 40)
- You (or your partner) are, or think you are, HIV or Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) positive or believe you may carry the Hepatitis B or C virus.
- You have ever been injected with non-prescription drugs including body-building drugs (includes one off use).
- You have EVER had any of the following:
- Cancer (including leukaemia)
- Heart disease or heart surgery
- Stroke
- Epilepsy
- Any neurological condition
- Obstructive Lung Disease
- Diabetes (unless this is controlled by diet alone)
- Ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease
- Sarcoidosis
- Reiter’s syndrome
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
- Ankylosing spondylitis
- Vasculitis
- Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
- Myasthenia gravis
- Pernicious anaemia
- Schizophrenia
- Sickle cell disease
- Haemophilia
- Thalassaemia
- Sciatica
- Hepatitis or a positive blood test for hepatitis or HTLV
- An allergy to latex or anaesthetic