You know the expression “a moment on the lips, forever on the hips?” I can think of something else that takes only a moment and can cause a lasting positive effect. With one quick and painless cheek swab, your DNA gets added to a stem cell registry. If you are found to be a match, you could potentially save a person’s life.
September 19, 2020, is World Marrow Donor Day. The event was created to thank stem cell donors and remind the public of the urgency of donating.
According to Canadian Blood Services, only one quarter of patients who need a stem cell transplant will find a donor within their family. Blood cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the world. Globally, one million hematopoietic (or blood) stem cell transplants were performed by 2012.
(If you don’t know the history of bone marrow transplants, I recommend you read this excellent post by Jovana Drinjakovic.)
In Canada, Stem Cell Club has chapters on 26 university campuses to promote donor recruitment. Since last year’s World Marrow Donor Day, Stem Cell Club has been sharing stories on social media from patients, donors, families, transplant staff, and others, as part of an educational campaign called “Why We Swab.”
One story on Facebook quickly puts to rest any misconception that donating is painful or difficult. “[…] the donation went really well. It was honestly just like giving a regular blood donation for me because I’m a regular blood donor as well, so there was nothing scary about it at all. They’re just taking some of your blood out and taking out what they need and giving the rest of your whole blood back. So I actually had a nap while I gave my donation.” Please consider getting a cheek swab to learn if you could be a match for someone. I have already.
The university students who participate in the Stem Cell Club are donors themselves – not surprisingly – and also recipients. Visit Stem Cell Club’s homepage to read about Ali and learn why this work is so personal. Since 2011, 17,500 donors have been recruited through Stem Cell Club and this number represents 4 per cent of all donors currently listed on Canada’s donor registry.
In addition to stem cell donations from adults, umbilical cord blood is a source of cells to treat blood cancers. Back in 2015, CCRM and IRICoR launched Montreal-based ExCellThera to leverage a best-in-class process that improves the viability and success of cord blood stem cell transplantation. Five years later, the company founded by Drs. Guy Sauvageau and Peter Zandstra has made huge strides.
ExCellThera’s lead technology, ECT-001, is a combination of a small molecule, UM171, and an optimized culture system. As per the website, the technology “is used in novel curative cord blood transplant therapies for patients with blood cancers, allowing rapid engraftment, greatly reduced incidence of transplant-related mortality, low risk of chronic graft-versus-host disease and low risk of relapse, resulting in better outcomes for patients.”
Watch this video to learn more about ExCellThera and how it is helping patients with malignant blood cancers.
Stacey Johnson
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