China has so far had more than 360,000 marrow donor data
available for patient search use, a record since the country
launched its national marrow project, the China Marrow Donor
Program (CMDP), in 2001, said an official with the Red Cross
Society of China (RCSC) Tuesday at a press conference in
Beijing.
Experts estimate the number could help more than 50 percent of
Chinese leukemia patients find a data that matches their own
diseases in the initial stages.
The number of the donor data in a bank under CMDP had reached
350,000 by late 2005, compared with the 360,000 in late March,
2006, said Guo Changjiang, vice president of RCSC.
"We plan to increase the number of the bank data to about one
million by 2010, which means about 80 percent of the Chinese
leukemia patients may have the chance to find a human qualified to
save their lives," he said.
Given that most Chinese families are single-child ones, the
chance for the people to find a highly matching marrow is growing
narrow. As a result, "people have to turn to unrelated marrow
donors for suitable marrows via public organizations," said
Guo.
But according to medical rules, the chance for a leukemia
patient to find one suitable donor is about one to ten thousand or
even narrower.
"To meet the people's need, we have to establish a marrow bank
on the wide basis of localities, races and nationalities," he
said.
By late July, 2005, CMDP had established 30-provincial branches,
25 Human leucocyte antigen laboratories and a quality control
laboratory.
(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2006)