The NMDP is a national program that helps to find unrelated bone marrow donors for patients who need bone marrow transplants but have been unsuccessful with finding matches within their family. Marrow transplantation is a procedure which as helped patients with primary bone marrow failure or with malignancies of the bone marrow and lymph nodes, such as leukemia and lymphomas.
Volunteers can enroll after three platelet donations.
People of the same ethnic background are more likely to match each other. The number of minority patients seeking bone marrow transplants from an unrelated donor is constantly growing, and the number of minorities enrolling is not growing fast enough. Special funding to cover HLA-typing costs for minorities is available.