Is the ethnic origin important when matching donors and patients?
Ethnic origin is important when matching donors and patients. The ‘markers’ that are tested when searching for a suitable bone marrow donor are genetically inherited and often unique to a particular race. A patient in need of a transplant is more likely to discover a suitable donor amongst groups of people who share a similar genetic history to them. In practice this means that an African-Caribbean patient, for example, has the greatest opportunity of finding a donor within his or her own ethnic community. There are still too many patients in the UK from Black and minority ethnic communities for whom we are unable to find a compatible donor.
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