Probability of finding HLA-matched unrelated marrow donors for Koreans andJapanese from the Korean and Japan Marrow Donor Programs

This study was performed to assess the probability of finding HLA-matched d onors for Korean and Japanese patients from unrelated marrow donor registri es of both countries. A simulation study of donor search was carried out us ing the donor pools of the Korean Marrow Donor Program (KMDP) with 10,244 a nd the Japan Marrow Donor Program (JMDP) with 53,411 HLA-A, -B, -DR typed d onors. The records of a total of 184 actual Korean patients and 1,302 simul ated Japanese patients were searched and A, B, DR-matched donors were found for 28% of Korean and 76% of Japanese patients from the KMDP and JMDP pool s, respectively, Of those patients who could not find matched donors in the registry of their own country 30% of Koreans could find matched donors in the JMDP and 10% of Japanese in the KMDP pools. It can be concluded that fu ture international collaboration between Korea and Japan would be very effe ctive for unrelated bone marrow transplantations.