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New Application of Old Drug Makes Bone Marrow Donations Easier to Match
A drug that’s around 70-years-old has been repurposed to improve bone marrow compatibility for people needing a donation, improving conditions for many thousands of patients.
I have a friend who donated bone marrow a few years back and had a fantastic experience doing it. If your age is 18–40 and you live in the US, you can register as a donor here: bethematch.org
Cyclophosphamide has now enabled more patients than ever to get bone-marrow transplants —more than 7,000 last year, according to NMDP…The field has essentially surmounted the problem of matching donors, a major barrier to transplants, Ephraim Fuchs, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins University, told me. Fuchs couldn’t remember the last time a patient failed to get a blood stem-cell transplant because they couldn’t find a donor.
