Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) or progenitor cell (HPC) donation can be made for oneself or for another person. When a patient receives his own HSCs/HPCs, both the cells and transplant type are referred to as autologous. When a patient receives cells from another person, the cells and transplant are referred to as allogeneic. Allogeneic donors may be an unrelated volunteer or related to the patient. Allogeneic transplant requires matching tissue types (human leukocyte antigen- or HLA-type) between the patient and donor. These tissue types are inherited, but 70 percent of patients do not have a matched donor in their family. Therefore, it is often necessary to screen thousands or millions of HLA-types to find a suitable match. Be The Match, the registry of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), maintains a database of more than eight million donors who have volunteered to donate HPCs. HPCs collected from a donor in the Be The Match registry are shipped from collection sites to hospitals around the world. Sources of cells for a bone marrow transplant include bone marrow, mobilized peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood.
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