finding a match

Ethnicity:

Most patients are most likely to find a donor in their own ethnic group. Caucasian patients have about 80% success rate of finding an unrelated matched donor while non-Caucasian patients have less than a 10% chance because they are under-represented in the worldwide stem cell registry. At this time, non-Caucasian registrants with OneMatch are also under represented.

Availability and Eligibility:

But it’s not just about finding a match. The donor must be available (easy to locate) and eligible to give (for example, i.e. in good health). Other considerations when selecting a donor include blood group, age, gender, and antigen exposure, to name a few.

• Any individual can have difficulty finding a matching donor, depending on the complexity of the genetic typing they have inherited. That’s why it’s important for as many Canadians – no matter what their ethnic background – to join OneMatch.

Best Chance is from your own ethnic group:

A person’s best chance of finding a donor is within his/her own ethnic group because of the “HLA tissue antigen” matching required. This is different from blood donation (which is not dependent on ethnicity or HLA tissue antigens.)

Best chance is a younger donor:

Younger donors offer better long-term survival rates for transplant patients and accordingly, there is increasing need for a younger, ethnically diverse stem cell registry to serve future generations of Canadians.

Only healthy people between the ages of 17 – 50 are eligible candidates for donating stem cells.