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- Minister for Health Mónica García is presiding over the institutional event organized to mark World Marrow Donor Day, which pays tribute to marrow donors and highlights the importance of this type of donation
- The number of registered donors has increased fivefold in just over a decade of the National Bone Marrow Plan, coordinated by the National Transplant Organization
- Inscriptions in the Bone Marrow Donor Registry (REDMO), managed by the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation, have skyrocketed to 20,872 in the first eight months of 2024, an increase of 50% compared to the same period of the previous year
- The average number of days taken to identify a non-family donor through the REDMO dropped from 46 days in 2012 to 28 in 2023
- The priorities of the next National Bone Marrow Plan are to rejuvenate the REDMO and achieve 35% self-sufficiency
Today, the Minister for Health, Mónica García, announced the reaching of a milestone for the National Marrow Donor Plan (PNMO): arriving at half a million donors in the Bone Marrow Donor Registry (REDMO) of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation. “This means that in just over ten years we have quintupled the number of registered donors”, said García.
The announcement was made during the institutional event organized on the occasion of World Marrow Donor Day, the third Saturday of September each year, which pays tribute to bone marrow donors and informs the population about this type of donation. At the event, the Minister was accompanied by the Director General of the National Transplant Organization (ONT), Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, and the Director of the REDMO of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation, Sergi Querol.
The Minister acknowledged all bone marrow donors, “both those who donate to family members and those who register with REDMO, willing to help any patient in the world who may need a bone marrow transplant and doesn’t have a compatible donor in their family”. Mónica García also highlighted “the achievements of the PNMO being presented today and the good functioning of the REDMO, though it is important to continue to improve our response to patient needs”. Here, the minister announced that “the ONT and the Josep Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation (FIJC) are already working on new aims for the next PNMO, such as increasing the number of registered donors, taking into account the diversity of our current population”.
Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, Director of the ONT, highlighted the importance of communication in encouraging young people to register as bone marrow donors. Here, she referred to the campaign Match Tour: A Tour for Love, Love for Life, which was carried out in the last quarter of 2023 in the framework of the PNMO. A bus spent 45 days travelling around 17 Spanish cities and Andorra in an initiative to attract the attention of 18-40 year-olds, especially men, and enable them to register as donors.
According to Domínguez-Gil, “Match Tour was a great success, helping to take the number of donors registered in the REDMO to 500,000. The campaign certainly had an impact on the increase in new registrations; so far this year, 20,872 new donors have registered with REDMO, 50% more than in the same period in 2023”. According to the Director of the ONT, the half-million milestone shows “the effectiveness of the PNMO, which in 2023 enabled transplants for 637 patients in Spain from a non-family donor, with over 6,000 patients benefitting since 2012”.
Sergi Querol insisted on the need to “incorporate younger donors into the REDMO, since scientific evidence shows a greater probability of success in bone marrow transplants when the donor is young”. The Director of the REDMO highlighted the fact that 51% of registered donors are under 40 years old and that the average age of donors who signed up in 2023 was 27, according to the REDMO report. He went on to insist that “a priority objective for the next plan is to lower the age of donors to improve transplant results and ensure that the donors remain active in the REDMO for longer”. Among other priorities, Querol also referred to self-sufficiency, or the ability to find a donor in the Spanish registry for patients resident in this country, which currently stands at 28% and should progress to 35%.
The event was attended by prominent representatives of the main members of the PNMO (autonomous communities, donor centres, scientific societies, and donor and patient associations, as well as the FIJC and the ONT), with a round table to assess the achievements and analyse priorities for establishing the objectives and strategic lines for the next PNMO. There was also a screening of the video “Entre el donante y el paciente hay medio millón” [Between donor and patient there are half a million], with real-life testimonies as a tribute to donors and a reflection of the impact of bone marrow donation on the treatment of patients diagnosed with onco-haematological diseases.
The National Bone Marrow Plan
The REDMO was set up by the FIJC in 1991 with the aim of identifying compatible donors for patients needing a bone marrow transplant who do not have a suitable donor among their relatives. Its development was completed in 1994, when it was integrated into the National Health System after the signing of the first Framework Agreement between the FIJC, the Ministry of Health and the ONT, which has been periodically renewed since then.
The PNMO, coordinated by the ONT and developed in collaboration with the autonomous communities, scientific societies, patient associations and the REDMO, was set up in 2012 and has been implemented in successive phases over the last 12 years with funding from the autonomous communities and the Ministry of Health. The PNMO has concentrated on increasing the number of donors registered in the REDMO, improving effectiveness (the probability of the registered donor becoming an effective donor) and increasing the level of self-sufficiency. Along with actions aimed at recruiting donors, the PNMO has improved its immunological characterization (HLA typing) and changed the makeup of the REDMO, which now increasingly focuses on younger donors. The PNMO has also organized quality certification programmes for collection and transplant centres, and professional training to facilitate the transplantation process and improve knowledge of the activity and the health impact of bone marrow transplantation.
Today, we can say that the PNMO has achieved its objectives, with the number of donors registered in the REDMO having multiplied by five in the 12 years of the plan to exceed half a million donors in September 2024, the month in which World Marrow Donor Day is celebrated. At the same time, the average number of days taken to find a non-family donor has been reduced from 46 days in 2012 to 28 in 2023; the level of self-sufficiency has increased from 4% to 28%, and effective donations have increased from 35 to 396 in 2023. As for the quality programme, all unrelated donor collection and transplant centres are quality certified according to the standards of the Joint Accreditation Committee ISCT-Europe & EBMT (JACIE), the only European quality certification body in this sector.
Bone marrow donation in figures
- Worldwide there are over 42 million bone marrow donors registered in the 106 registries that form part of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), of which REDMO is a part with its more than 500,000 donors. When a medical team requests a search for a bone marrow donor, the REDMO begins the search in all WMDA records.
- In terms of volume of registered donors, REDMO ranks 6th in Europe and 13th worldwide. In terms of effectiveness, REDMO stands 5th in Europe, with one effective donation for every 1,250 registered donors.
- The REDMO’s donor collection requests increased by 29% in 2023 from 2022, reaching 642. Of these, 396 went ahead, 24% more than the previous year.
- The probability of identifying a voluntary donor for a patient is currently 88% (82% in 2012). Recent years have seen the development of the related haploidentical transplant, which allows the treatment of patients without a compatible donor. Whereas 70 haploidentical transplants were performed in Spain in 2012, the number rose to 428 in 2023.
- The average time taken to identify a compatible donor through the REDMO is 28 days.
- In 2023, the REDMO coordinated bone marrow donations for 637 Spanish patients and 285 patients in other countries. Since it was created in 1991, the REDMO has organized the collection, transport and infusion of the necessary bone marrow to perform 13,576 transplants for patients around the world.
- In 2023, 637 unrelated donor transplants were carried out in Spain, the highest figure in our history. Of these, 28% were performed using bone marrow from a donor registered with the REDMO.
The REDMO is the only official registry in Spain to manage the data of bone marrow donors, which it receives directly from the Autonomous Communities. The REDMO is responsible for searching worldwide for compatible donors for Spanish patients and coordinating the transport of bone marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood from the place of collection to the transplant centre. The REDMO also receives requests for searches for compatible Spanish donors for foreign patients submitted by Registries in other countries.
