What is considered a bone marrow match?
The match has nothing to do with blood type. At least five different proteins, called Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA), on the surface of white blood cells are matched to donors. Each protein is on a small section of chromosome (the genetic code everyone carries in the cells of their body) called an allele (pronounced uh-leel). The locations or loci of the alleles on the chromosome are referred to as HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, HLA-DR and HLA-DQ. If the patient and donor have the same two alleles at each location, the donor is considered a perfect match (“10 out of 10”). Chances that someone other than a sibling are a perfect match are about 1 in 100,000. In my case, none of my siblings are a match. Mayo clinic is using the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) to find a donor for me. There are over 5 million wonderful people that have agreed to be potential donors for people in need of bone marrow transplants. In fact, Deb and I have three friends that already signed up to be national donors si
