Information Resource for Patients

NMDP Releases New Transplant Center Directory

The National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP) has released its latest Transplant Center Directory. A publication of the NMDP's Office of Patient Advocacy, the directory is a free and vital resource for all patients who are undergoing a blood stem cell transplant and do not have a matching donor in their family.

Patients with leukemia or more than 60 other life-threatening diseases such as leukemia may be treated with a marrow or blood stem cell transplant. For a transplant to be successful, the donor must be very closely matched with the patient. Patients who don't have a matching donor in their family can work with their doctors to look for a matching donor in the NMDP Registry. If a matching donor is found, the NMDP arranges for the transplant to take place.

"The Transplant Center Directory provides the information needed to help patients make the best choice in their patient care," said Pamela Weisdorf, director of the NMDP's Office of Patent Advocacy. "The new online version features enhanced search criteria enabling patients to more easily locate specific information about NMDP transplant centers."

Each transplant center listing in the online Transplant Center Directory contains information that may help a patient decide whether to choose that center, including:

• Contact information for the medical director, coordinator, patient advocate and financial worker
• A list of the center's attending physicians
• Donor match criteria
• Type of facility: adult, pediatric or both
• Access criteria and how to arrange consultations
• Research interests
• Financial criteria (deposits required) and if assistance is provided
• Cost data for services
• Transplant history (NMDP-facilitated and all other activity, i.e., autologous, related allogeneic, etc.)
• Center-specific survival (risk-adjusted percentage)
• Raw survival data, categorized by age and disease

The Transplant Center Directory also provides a list with phone numbers of all NMDP international transplant centers.

The NMDP's Office of Patient Advocacy helps transplant patients work through the donor search and transplant process, handling more than 300 calls each month and providing a wide range of information, referrals, support and advocacy services.

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is committed to its mission to extend and improve life through innovative stem cell therapies. The NMDP has facilitated more than 15,000 transplants throughout the world for patients with life-threatening diseases such as leukemia and aplastic anemia, as well as certain immune system and genetic disorders. The NMDP offers searching patients who do not have suitable family donors a single point of access for all three sources of stem cells used in transplantation: marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood. Through its extensive U.S. and international Network, the NMDP manages the largest and most diverse Registry of volunteer donors, including more than 25,000 cord blood units. Matching donors to patients is only part of the NMDP's life-saving mission. The NMDP also provides support for patients and physicians and conducts research aimed at increasing opportunities for and improving the outcomes of stem cell transplants.

To learn more about becoming a marrow or blood stem cell donor, donating umbilical cord blood and other ways to help, please call (800) MARROW-2.