By Md Rasooldeen

Riyadh, Apr 13 (Arab News): The King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) has set up the first national bone marrow donor registry in the Kingdom, according to Ali H. Hajeer, immunology professor at King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Riyadh.

In a paper to be presented on Wednesday at an international medical symposium inaugurated in Riyadh Hajeer said: “The registry will help those patients without a matching donor to have the chance of finding an unrelated matching donor.”

The two-day international conference on “Histocompatibility and Cord Blood Stem Cells: From Laboratory to Patient Care” was inaugurated by Dr. Bandar Al-Knawy, chief executive officer of National Guard Health Affairs and president of King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Riyadh.

Both cord blood units and bone marrow donors will be able to register their names during the Janadriya Festival, which is to be inaugurated by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on Wednesday.

Hajeer explained that stem-cell transplantation is a life-saving procedure that requires HLA-match donors. Most stem cell donors in the Kingdom come from family members.

“Analysis of our own data at KAIMRC showed that young patients — from five years old — have up to a 40-percent chance of finding a matched related donor, while older patients — from 20 years — have up to a 70 percent chance of finding a match related donor,” he said, adding that many patients die because  they cannot find a matching related donor.