Equally 20 years ago, Marrow Donor Day was established. As Professor Wiesław Jędrzejczak says, transplantation of haematopoietic stem cells from an unrelated donor is one of the most humane challenges humanity is capable of facing. - The donor sacrifices his or her time and effort to help an unknown person from Poland or another country, adds the professor.
Transplantation of haematopoietic stem cells from peripheral blood or bone marrow from a healthy donor is often the patient's only salvation. Only ¼ of patients find a compatible donor in their family; the remainder, as many as 75%, must seek an unrelated donor.
Professionalising the search
- Initially, the donor registry was set up in a cottage industry way, i.e. transplantologists tried to recruit donors as much as they had time. Later, professional organisations emerged that largely took over this task. This led to a situation where we now have more than 40 million registered donors worldwide, including more than 2 million in Poland," says Professor Wiesław W. Jędrzejczak, a pioneer of Polish transplantology. Such an international non-profit organisation dealing with blood cancers and other diseases of the haematopoietic system is the DKMS Foundation, which has been operating since 2008. In over 14 years, it has registered over 1 800 000 potential donors in Poland. - Initially, a few people worked at the Foundation. The aim was, above all, to spread the idea of bone marrow donation, to explain to Poles what it is all about, that it is safe and that it saves lives. At the moment we are able to register around 200,000 people. But building awareness is a process that you can never stop and say that we have done everything,' says Ewa Magnucka-Bowkiewicz, President of the DKMS Foundation.
Marcelina Grabowska, head of the immunogenetics laboratory at UCK WUM, emphasises that diagnostic methods have improved in the meantime. - In the 1980s, it was only really routine to start typing HLA tissue compatibility antigens, which is important in the process of selecting a haematopoietic cell donor. When we started with HLA diagnostics, 10 alleles were known. Today, we have 40,000 HLA specificities. So the progress is immeasurable," he points out.
Not only the search for donors
DKMS Foundation in 2018 started the Programme for the Development of Polish Transplantology and Patient Support, which includes helping patients in the areas of diet and rehabilitation, subsidising the purchase of medical equipment and the construction, expansion and renovation of hospital wards, cooperating with organisations in the field of education and support of patients and their relatives, and providing knowledge about the idea of bone marrow donation. The programme is financed by donations made by the Foundation's donors, funds donated under 1% tax and income generated from services provided for the coordination of bone marrow or haematopoietic stem cell donation procedures.
Thanks to the support of the DKMS Foundation, a new clinic was recently opened in Poznań, which offers the right conditions for young oncology patients. Prof. Jacek Wachowiak, head of the Paediatric Oncology, Haematology and Transplantology Clinic at the Poznań University of Medical Sciences, points out that oncology wards have so far operated within walls designed in the mid-1960s, when paediatric oncology was just being born and its needs were not at all anticipated. - In our case, conditions were very harsh. Four- or three-bed rooms, narrow passages between beds. Meanwhile, oncology treatment is long-term, which requires 24-hour facilities for parents. We decided to change this. We had funding from, among others, the Wielkopolska Marshal's Office, but lacked our own contribution. I mentioned this to the president of the DKMS Foundation, Ewa Magnucka-Bowkiewicz, and we received this invaluable support. On 4 October this year, the official opening of the new clinic took place, where the rooms are single or double with all the facilities for a 24-hour stay for the parents. There is a day room for children in each ward. We have also created a neonatology station for the first time," says Prof Wachowiak.
With the support of the Foundation
- Statutorily, we are primarily a bone marrow donor centre. But we realised that we wanted to accompany the patient from diagnosis to cure. We have also taken on psychological support for patients and their families," says CEO Ewa Magnucka-Bowkiewicz.
Prof. Marzena Samardakiewicz, president of the Polish Psycho-oncology Association stresses that the moment of cancer diagnosis, as well as waiting for a donor and preparation for transplantation, are extremely emotionally charged stages. - Without adapted, tailored psychological support, the therapeutic effect can be worse. All traumatic experiences take away strength and cause an emotional crisis," he points out.
Prof Jędrzejczak draws attention to the problem of psychological care for the donor. - Probably more so for a family donor than an unrelated donor, because a family donor is more exposed to the fact that the brother or sister to whom he or she donated their blood-forming cells will die. Often these people have questions like, 'Is there something wrong with them if the patient has died?
The DKMS Foundation has been operating in Poland since 2008 as an independent non-profit organisation. It has the status of a Public Benefit Organisation and a Bone Marrow Donor Centre based on the decision of the Minister of Health. During more than 11 years, the Foundation has registered more than 1,700,000 potential donors in Poland! The statutory objective of the Foundation is to support people in need of help due to their physical, mental or emotional condition; to promote science and research in the field of stem cell transplantation and to promote public health.
Source: medexpress.co.uk