What We Do
Curing Blood Cancers and More
For patients diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, and other life-threatening diseases, a hematopoietic cell transplant (bone marrow or cord blood transplant) may be their best or only hope for a cure. Yet 70% of patients who need a transplant do not have a fully HLA-matched donor in their family. They depend on the National Marrow Donor Program®/Be The Match® and our supporters to find a match and a chance for a cure.
Our founders recognized this need and started a registry of volunteer donors. Today, our service and resources extend far beyond the Be The Match Registry®. We serve as the hub of our global network to facilitate transplants, improve access to transplant, conduct research, educate and support patients, and provide extensive resources and education for health care professionals.
Growing the Be The Match Registry to Find a Match for All Patients
The Be The Match Registry is the world's largest registry with more than 19 million adult potential donors and more than 249,000 umbilical cord blood units. We have facilitated more than 86,000 transplants since we were founded in 1986. Although we can now find matches for 76% to 97% of patients (depending on ethnic background), we need to find a matching donor for all patients who need a transplant. Our innovative efforts are improving diversity, recruiting younger donors — those most likely to be called upon to donate — and better engaging potential donors on our registry to be available when called.
Facilitating Transplants Throughout the World
Our global network counts on our groundbreaking technology, bioinformatics, search expertise, and unparalleled logistical support at every step to maximize the number of transplants facilitated. In 2020, we facilitated 6,467 transplants. From the moment a clinician searches our registry for a donor, to the safe delivery of the cells to a patient for transplant — we are there every step of the way. Like the clinicians we work with every day, we too are touched by the lives saved through transplant, which drives our never-ending passion and dedication to find and deliver the matched donor or cord blood unit that each patient needs.
Improving Access to Transplant
While the number of all transplants — autologous and allogeneic — has grown considerably in recent years, our analyses show that more than half of those who need a transplant never receive one. [1] As the leader of the System Capacity Initiative, we are partnering with our network and other related professional organizations to increase the number of transplant workforce professionals and provide a care delivery system to meet this growing need. [2,3]
We collaborate with payers and government officials to deepen the understanding of the coverage needs for all transplant patients. We also conduct health outcomes research to understand barriers in access to transplant care.
Supporting Patients, Caregivers, and Families
We partner with health care professionals to provide one-on-one support for patients with blood cancers and other diseases, and for those receiving either an allogeneic or autologous transplant. We offer educational resources and guidance in all phases — before, during, and after transplant — for emotional, medical, and financial needs. Health care professionals can also use these services for their patients, which are free to all.
Access services and resources you can use with your patients
Providing Clinical Education for Health Care Professionals
We also support health care professionals who refer patients for a transplant, perform transplants, and provide care for patients after transplant. We provide resources, guidelines, CME education, training, and more, so clinicians can make the decisions they need to best care for their patients.
Access clinical education, slides, and guidelines
Partnering to Pursue New Life-Saving Cellular Therapy Treatments
Through our subsidiary, Be The Match BioTherapiesSM, we’re extending the capabilities we’ve developed through our 30 years of experience to help organizations deliver new cellular therapies to save more lives and improve the quality of life for patients, including those who face complications following transplant. These include companies researching and developing therapies using a patient’s own cells (autologous) and those using donor cells (allogeneic).
Visit our Be The Match BioTherapies website to learn about our services
Conducting Research that is Saving Lives Today
Our dedication to research has had a significant impact on transplant outcomes and has improved quality of life for hundreds of thousands of transplant patients. With more than 1,500 research publications and more than 225 active studies, our research program, the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research® (CIBMTR®), in collaboration with the Medical College of Wisconsin, is a global effort to conduct research to help more patients survive.
Learn about our research efforts
Raising Funds to Save More Lives
We raise funds to ensure that all patients receive the life-saving transplant they need. Much of our work is made possible because of generous supporters and volunteers. Every dollar raised helps us add new potential donors and cord blood units to the Be The Match Registry, conduct research, and provide grants to patients to ease the financial burden before and after transplant.
References
- Yao S, Hahn T, Zhang Y, et al. Unrelated donor allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation is underused as a curative therapy in eligible patients from the United States. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2013; 19(10): 1459-1464. Access
- Majhail NS, Murphy EA, Denzen EM, et al. The National Marrow Donor Program’s Symposium on Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in 2020: A Health Care Resource and Infrastructure Assessment. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2012; 18(2): 172-182. Access
- Denzen EM, Majhail NS, Stickney Ferguson S, et al. Hematopoietic cell transplantation in 2020: Summary of year 2 recommendations of the National Marrow Donor Program's System Capacity Initiative. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2013; 19(1): 4-11. Access