China has so far had more than 360,000 marrow donor data available for patient search use, a record since the country had launched its national marrow project, the China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) program, in 2001, said an official with the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) in Beijing on Tuesday at a press conference.

 

Experts estimate the number could help more than 50 percent of Chinese leukaemia patients successful in finding a data that matches their own diseases in the initial stages.

 

The number of the donor data in a bank under CMDP had reached 350,000 by late 2005, compared with the 360,000 in late March, 2006, said Guo Changjiang, vice president of RCSC.

 

"We plan to increase the number of the bank data to about one million by 2010, which means about 80 percent of the Chinese leukaemia patients may have the chance to find a human qualified to save their lives," he said.

 

Given that most Chinese families are single-child ones, the chance for the people to find a highly matching marrow is growing narrow. As a result, "people have to turn to unrelated marrow donors for suitable marrows via public organizations," said Guo.

 

But according to medical rules, the chance for a leukaemia patient to find one suitable donor is about one to ten thousand or even narrower.

 

"To meet the people's need, we have to establish a marrow bank on the wide basis of localities, races and nationalities," he said.

 

By late July, 2005, CMDP had established 30-provincial branches, 25 Human leucocyte antigen laboratories and a quality control laboratory.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2006)