NMDP Launches Minority Cord Blood Recruitment Initiative

MINNEAPOLIS—Give Life Twice. That’s the message behind a new National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) pilot project designed to increase the number of minority umbilical cord blood units listed on the NMDP Registry. Patients of minority race and ethnicity are less likely than Caucasians to find a matched donor in the Registry, the NMDP said in a press release. The NMDP’s goal is to collect 2,000 units of cord blood from African-American, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander donors.

Four NMDP Cord Blood Banks are participating in the project: Bonfils Cord Blood Services, collecting units in Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs, Colorado; Children’s Hospital of Orange County Cord Blood Bank, collecting units in Orange County, California; LifeCord, collecting units in Montgomery, Alabama and Gainesville, Florida; and St. Louis Cord Blood Bank, collecting units in the greater St. Louis, Missouri area.