The US National Marrow Donor Program role in unrelated donor hematopoietic cell transplantation

The National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Established in 1986, the NMDP currently operates the world's largest registry of unrelated adult donors and umbilical cord blood (UCB) units. Since its inception, the NMDP has benefited from continuous financial support provided by the US government through a series of contracts and grant awards. This funding has supported a large network of donor centers and the recruitment of millions of potential adult hematopoietic cell (HC) donors. More recently, the federal government has also supported a national registry for UCB units and expansion of the available UCB inventories. Today, the NMDP registry lists more than 6.7 million adult donors and 68 000 UCB units. Seventy-seven percent (5.2 million) of the adult donors and virtually all of the UCB units are fully typed for HLA A, B and DR. An additional 5 million donors are available for search through international collaborations. The NMDP currently facilitates more than 3600 recipients each year totaling more than 29 000 transplants since 1987.