Bone Marrow Donor Shortage For Mixed-Race Patients

[Mulboyne]

AP: Mixed-race patients struggle to find marrow donors
If Nick Glasgow were white, he would have a nearly 90 percent chance of finding a matching bone marrow donor who could cure his leukemia. But because the 28-year-old bodybuilder is one-quarter Japanese, his doctor warned him the outlook was grim. Glasgow's background would make it almost impossible to find a match, which usually comes from a patient's own ethnic group. The doctor "didn't say it was slim-to-none. He didn't say it would be hard. He said 'zero chance,'" Glasgow's mother, Carole Wiegand, recalled with tears in her eyes. "When Nick heard that, it sent him plummeting." At a time when the number of multiracial Americans is rising, only a tiny fraction of donors on the national bone-marrow registry are of mixed race..."The truth is, when people of different backgrounds marry and produce offspring, it creates more types that are harder to match," said Michelle Setterholm, the program's director of scientific services. "The probability just gets lower when you have people of mixed ancestral DNA"...Glasgow's grandfather, an Army soldier from South Carolina, fell in love while stationed in Japan after World War II and married across racial lines at a time when it was illegal to do so in many states. From his Japanese grandmother, Glasgow got the almond shape of his eyes and cell markers that set him apart from most other whites. From his white grandparents, he got markers that set him apart from other Japanese...more...

[Kanchou]

Wow... that's actually a pretty interesting issue. Had no idea that sort of thing could happen to someone who's only 1/4 'something else.'

[TennoChinko]

I don't get it.... given that most American blacks have bloodlines mixed with white and native American roots shouldn't they also have been suffering from the same problem for a while?

[xenomorph42]

I don't get it.... given that most American blacks have bloodlines mixed with white and native American roots shouldn't they also have been suffering from the same problem for a while?

I was thinking the same thing.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I don't get it.... given that most American blacks have bloodlines mixed with white and native American roots shouldn't they also have been suffering from the same problem for a while?

Maybe they do or maybe it's a questions of numbers. Since there are millions of black people in North and South America who have mixed over the last four hundred years or so there are probably a lot more potential donors out there. Some argue that African-Americans should be considered a distinctive racial/ethnic group from black Africans.

I wonder when someone becomes mixed race as far as bone marrow is concerned. The part Navajo part Mexican guy is an interesting case. Is it because the Mexican side is mestizo so he has European blood or are the natives of Mexico and the Navajos that different genetically? Would a person of Anglo and Georgian decent have this problems are are they too close racially? How about a Chinese-Japanese mix?

[Ketou]

Jeez that sux...

Time to get out there and expand the donor pool gentlemen.

[Kanchou]

You know, people have actually had extra kids just to harvest bone marrow for previous children... by using genetic screening, in-vitro, etc to make sure they get the compatible genes.

[Tsuru]

Very interesting...