Join the Marrow Donor Program
The Need for Minority Donors
Reaching Out to Diverse Communities
Each year, more than 35,000 children and adults in the United States develop life-threatening diseases for which a marrow or blood cell transplant could be a cure. These diseases affect families from all racial and ethnic backgrounds.
A marrow or PBSC transplant requires matching tissue types between patient and donor. Because tissue type is inherited, a patient's best chance of finding a match is with a brother or sister. Unfortunately, 70 percent of patients do not have a suitably matched donor in their family. Because tissue traits are inherited, a patient's next best chance of finding a match is with someone of the same race or ethnicity.
American Indian and Alaska Native, Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, and multiple-race patients face a greater challenge in finding a match than white patients. To meet this challenge, we develop partnerships with organizations based in these communities. Community connections can bring awareness of marrow and blood cell transplantation and the need for donors to more people, while building trust and better serving patients and donors from these communities.
Donor information for specific ethnic backgrounds is provided below.
American Indian and Alaska Native
More than 69,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives have joined the NMDP Registry to volunteer as potential marrow or blood cell donors. Nevertheless, more American Indian and Alaska Native donors are still needed, so that more patients can have a chance of finding a match. To date, the NMDP has facilitated 83 transplants for patients identified as American Indian or Alaska Native.
Note: Historical data can be affected by updates to donor or patient race codes, disease codes and transplant dates
Asian, Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander
There are currently 7,000 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders and more than 360,000 Asian donors registered with the NMDP.
More Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander volunteer donors are needed, so others can have a chance for a future. To date, 17 patients identified as Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders have received unrelated donor transplants facilitated by the NMDP. There have been more than 500 transplants for Asian recipients.
Asian and Pacific Islander Donors . . . Can Save Lives
Note: Historical data can be affected by updates to donor or patient race codes, disease codes and transplant dates
Hispanic and Latino
There are more than 400,000 donors of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity on the NMDP registry. The NMDP has facilitated more than 2,100 transplants for patients of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.
Because a matching donor or cord blood unit is most likely to be found within a person's racial or ethnic background, more patients will have a second chance at life when more Hispanic people volunteer as potential marrow or blood cell donors or donate umbilical cord blood after the birth of a baby. As more volunteers join the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and more mothers donate their babies' cord blood, more patients of all racial and ethnic backgrounds will be able to find matching donors.
Note: Historical data can be affected by updates to donor or patient race codes, disease codes and transplant dates
Black and African American
There are more than 430,000 Black or African Americans registered with the NMDP and more than 800 transplants of Black or African American patients have been facilitated since the NMDP began operations.
Black and African American patients will have a greater chance of finding matching donors when more Black and African American people join the Registry and become committed donors. To address this challenge, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is committed to working with the Black and African American communities to raise awareness about marrow and blood cell donation and transplantation and to recruit more potential donors.
Note: Historical data can be affected by updates to donor or patient race codes, disease codes and transplant dates.