10 YEARS SWISS BONE-MARROW DONOR REGISTRY

The Swiss Bone Marrow Donor Registry was established 1988 as a project of Swiss Transplant. Up to the end of 1997, 13 500 unrelated voluntee r donors have been added to the central registry in Bern in cooperatio n with the regional transfusion centers of Switzerland. During this pe riod, the registry responded to over 15000 international search reques ts. 67 matching Swiss donors were found for patients all over the worl d. On the other hand, 77 Swiss patients received unrelated bone marrow transplantation from international donors, In 1997, 24 donors were se lected from the Swiss registry and 21 bone marrow transplantations wer e performed, which is more than in any year before. The most recent de velopments are peripheral blood stem cell donation and the creation of cord blood banks.