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Back to the drawing board.

As per my request, Dr. Manuel set up an appointment for a stem cell transplant reassessment with Dr. Christina Fraga in Halifax. We met on Wednesday, August 6th, and despite a second global search of donor registries, no 10/10 match for me has been found. Only one 9/10 match has been located. He's now 38, and as Dr. Fraga explained, especially since MF can present unique challenges in terms of a successful transplant, a 10/10 match is the gold standard by which transplant teams operate. With only one match that is less than 10/10, proceeding with transplant preparation isn't recommended. Should the donor be unavailable or unwilling to proceed when his cells are required, the recipient, with a destroyed immune system, would simply die.  


More so than previously, this led me to wonder what specifically are the requirements for a stem cell donor match. As found on the London Health Sciences Centre website, the match is found in "human leukocyte antigens" (HLA), which are proteins/cells that are found on the surface of all cells other than red blood cells. They are like fingerprints that allow your immune system to recognize cells that belong in your body (and to fight cells that they believe don't). Further Googling found that four in ten patients do not find a matching donor, according to DKMS (Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei/German Bone Marrow Donor Center). 


Oh well, back to the old drawing board. 

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