PD Dr. Dr. Lambros Kordelas (Ratingen/ DE), Christian Binder (Ratingen/ DE), Karin Gebhardt (Ratingen/ DE), Dr. Carlos Luis Jiménez Klingberg (Hagen/ DE), Joana Siepmann (Ratingen/ DE), Daniel Weichert (Ratingen/ DE), Dr. Johannes Fischer (Düsseldorf/ DE), Dr. Thomas Zeiler (Hagen/ DE), Prof. Dr. Peter Alexander Horn (Essen/ DE)
Background
19 million non-Caucasians live in Germany. These people have genetically different HLA antigens compared to the most common HLA frequencies in Central Europe. In severe hematological diseases, allogeneic stem cell transplantation offers the only curative therapy. However, finding HLA-compatible hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) donors in case a related donor is lacking, is a major challenge as there are only few unrelated donors with a similar genetic background registered in HSC donor registries.
Methods
The "BluStar" project was initiated to recruit non-Caucasian donors of HSC. The non-Caucasian donors were registered and typed by the Westdeutsche SpenderZentrale (WSZE), Ratingen, Germany. Several dedicated recruiting events, multi-lingual flyers, and intensive interactions with relevant social stakeholders have been employed to attract potential non-Caucasian HSC donors. We analysed the gender and age distribution of donors recruited in the BluStar project. Besides, we documented the "work-ups" (i.e. requests for a potential HSC donation) resulting out of the BluStar cohort per country and compared the apheresis probability and cancellation rate of work-ups in the BluStar cohort with that in the non-BluStar WSZE donor cohort.
Results
More than 9,100 non-Caucasian HSC donors have been recruited. Gender distribution is equal: 4,583 (50%) donors are male (m) and 4,550 (50%) donors are female (f). The age distribution is as follows: < 30 years: 2,937/3,168 (32%/35%, m/f); <40 years: 962/627 (11%/7%, m/f); <50 years: 551/589 (6%/6%, m/f); >50 years: 133/166 (1%/2%, m/f). 29 work-ups were initiated. 13 work-ups were cancelled; however, 12 PBSC, one BM and three DLI were collected so far. The PBSC/BM/DLI were delivered to Germany, USA, France, Spain, UK, Poland and Australia. Apheresis probability is twofold higher in the BluStar donor cohort (0.18% vs. 0.07%). In contrast, the cancellation rate of work-ups in the BluStar cohort is almost twice as high (45% vs. 25%).
Conclusion
Within the BluStar project more than 9,100 non-Caucasian donors were registered as unrelated HSC donors. The twice-fold apheresis probability in the non-Caucasian donor cohort pinpoints the lack of non-Caucasian HSC donors. However, the high cancellation rate might indicate higher logistic hurdles in this cohort. Obviously, there is serious medical need to increase the number of non-Caucasian HSC donors to enable more allogeneic stem cell transplantations in the non-Caucasian patient population.
Offenlegung Interessenkonflikt:
There is no conflict of interest to declare. The European Development Fund 2014-2020 (ERDF) and the European Union funded this project.
Invited talks abstract/summary