The Need

• Every year, more than 10,000 Americans get life-threatening diseases that can only be cured with a bone marrow transplant from a unrelated donor.  The patients do not have a family donor and transplant is the only hope for a cure.
  
  
• Since it began operations in 1987, the National Marrow Donor Program has facilitated more than 30,000 marrow or blood cell transplants for patients who do not have matching donors in their families.
  
  
• On average, the NMDP facilitates more than 300 transplants each month, with more than 3,700 marrow and cord blood transplants in 2007.
  
  
• Patients diagnosed with leukemia, lymphomas or other blood cancers make up approximately 72 percent of transplants facilitated by the NMDP.  The remaining patients undergo transplant to treat a variety of immune system and inherited disorders.
  
  
• Advances such as reduced-intensity transplants have made transplant a treatment option for more patients, particularly older patients.  In 2007, 35 percent of NMDP transplants – nearly 1,300 transplants – were for patients aged 50 and older.
  
  
• Only 30 percent of patients in need of a marrow or blood cell transplant find a matched donor in their family.  The other 70 percent may turn to the NMDP to search for an unrelated donor or cord blood unit.

The NMDP Registry

Every search conducted through the NMDP provides patients a single point of access to more than 11 million donors and more the 290,000 cord blood units on the global donor listing.

• This includes nearly 7 million potential volunteer marrow donors and nearly 70,000 cord blood units on the NMDP Registry, as well as donors listed through Bone Marrow Donor Worldwide (BMDW).
  
  
• On average, 33,000 new volunteers join the NMDP Registry each month, nearly 334,000 new volunteers each year.
  
  
• The NMDP’s Center for Cord Blood provides 70,000 cord blood units from 24 member cord blood banks.
  
  
• The NMDP maintains relationships with donor centers, transplant centers and other registries in more than 35 countries outside of the United States and 49 percent of all transplants facilitated by the NMDP involve an international donor or recipient.