Coordination of unrelated bone marrow donors in the Tokai Bone Marrow Bank--psychological reactions of donors to donation

The Tokai Bone Marrow Bank was established in 1989 and coordinated 1,415 patients with 3,000 HLA-A, B-typed donors. Of the 1,415 patients, 757 patients had HLA-A, B-identical donors, 206 patients had HLA-DR-identical donors, and 80 patients had MLC-compatible donors. Finally, 55 unrelated donor bone marrow transplantations were done. The most frequent reason of interruption in coordination was disagreement of donor's family. We sent several questions by mail around 1 month after the donation to 55 donors to analyze the psychological reactions of unrelated bone marrow donors to donation. Donors were generally quite positive about the donation. 92% of the donors felt it was worthwhile and no one felt it was not at all worthwhile. 73% of the donors would be willing to donate again in the future. 79% of donors would like to know the clinical course of the patient after the bone marrow transplantation. We hope that these results may be helpful in the development of the Japan Marrow Donor Program.