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Marrow Donors Elusive for Multiracial Patients

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AP, May 27, 2009

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. {snip}

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 National Marrow Donor Program is trying to change that by seeking more diverse donors for patients suffering from leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases.

“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.”

More multiracial Americans

{snip}

The donor program has been pushing for years to recruit more racial minorities and mixed-race donors. So far, multiracial volunteers make up just 3 percent of the 7 million people on the registry.

That is higher than the percentage of mixed-race people in the U.S. But there are so many possible racial and ethnic combinations that finding a match can still be extremely difficult.

The reason that mixed-heritage patients are so hard to match can be found in the immune system.

Mixed Race

Populations in different parts of the world developed certain proteins, or markers, that are part of the body’s natural defenses. These markers help the immune system determine which cells are foreign and should be rejected.

A match between two people who share many markers will reduce the risk of the donor and recipient cells attacking each other. Because certain markers tend to cluster in particular ethnic groups, matches are most often found among people of shared backgrounds. Multiracial patients often have uncommon profiles and a much harder time finding a donor.

{snip}

Seeking a match

Finding compatible organs for transplant is simpler. Organ matches rely essentially on blood type, which is not related to race.

{snip}

Geary Moya’s background—part Navajo, part Mexican—has kept his life on hold since 2005, when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Chemotherapy has put his cancer in remission, but a bone marrow transplant is his only hope for a cure.

{snip}

Original article

(Posted on May 28, 2009)

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Comments

1 — Obscuratus wrote at 7:19 PM on May 28:

Wasn’t there a study done a few months ago whereby East Asian mothers with white spouses had higher pregnancy risks than their same race counterparts?

Strange that they’re still espousing “mixed race” offspring even as medical evidence piles up that such offspring don’t seem to get the advantages of “hybrid vigour” of other living creatures…

2 — jewamongyou wrote at 7:59 PM on May 28:

Just another “advantage” of diversity. Notice how they speak of “populations in different parts of the world…” - but, of course, those “populations” could never be “races”, now could they? Why’s that? Because “race” is only a “social construct”. I’m sure this would be very comforting for Mr. Glasgow. “Mr. Glasgow, unfortunately there will be no matches for your marrow. The good news is that it has nothing to do with your race. Not at all. Instead, it has to do with your ‘population group’ ” At that, Mr. Glasgow will smile, knowing that he’s going to die - but he will not die a racist!

3 — Anonymous wrote at 10:11 PM on May 28:

These are clearly racist lies. Blood types are just a social construct!
In seriousness though, how do Mexico and other Latin American countries deal with this since most of their populations are mixed race (mestizo means mixed) or are newer race mixes different from populations where the mixing occurred hundreds of years go?
Its pretty interesting from a biological standpoint, although I’m sure any science that conflicts with multi-cult dogma will be brushed aside.

4 — Anonymous wrote at 11:41 PM on May 28:

Could this be nature’s way of telling us not to mix?

5 — kc wrote at 8:37 AM on May 29:

But I thought there was no differences between the races, that race was just a social contruct?

6 — D Andrews wrote at 9:26 AM on May 29:

when i was a medical technologist, i worked across the hall from the blood bank. i used to go drink coffee with one of the blood bank techs. he told me that the vast majority of blood donors were white but that the vast majority of blood recipients were black. without whites, there would essentially be no blood in the blood bank.

7 — A. Windaus wrote at 10:03 AM on May 29:

Obscuratus said “Strange that they’re still espousing “mixed race” offspring even as medical evidence piles up that such offspring don’t seem to get the advantages of “hybrid vigour” of other living creatures…”

That is largely because people don’t understand what outbreeding does to the gene pool, what Hybrid Vigour is and what happens when it is applied to humans rather than in an animal gene pool.

Hybrid Vigour, also known as outbreeding enhancement, is where one animal is crossed with another animal that has more dominant genes - this is called outbreeding - and the resulting offspring are superior in fitness to both parents.

While outbreeding may increase the CHANCES of superior offspring it also increases the CHANCES of inferior offspring as a nasty side effect. Hybrid Vigour is when the gene combination goes well while outbreeding depression is when it fails. Because of this Hybrid Vigour, by definition, will always be considered a “good” thing because it only looks at the successes and ignores all the failures.

With dogs and cats the failures are either removed from the gene pool or are destroyed, something we cannot do with humans so the end result is that outbreeding, or miscegenation in this case, has a higher chance of creating children that are genetically less able than their two parents. We may hear about the Obamas and the Tiger Woods of the world but we don’t hear about all the children who are not as lucky to have been given good hand-eye coordination or a higher intellect.

8 — Anonymous wrote at 10:18 AM on May 29:

Wasn’t there a study done a few months ago whereby East Asian mothers with white spouses had higher pregnancy risks than their same race counterparts?

Increased risk of pregnancy problems in Asian-white Couples.

9 — Anonymous wrote at 4:32 PM on May 29:

It’s interesting that all the populations of mixed races, Indians, mestizos and African Americans are all at risk of getting diabetes. That alone shows what happens from mixing.

10 — ghw wrote at 4:14 AM on May 31:

“how do Mexico and other Latin American countries deal with this since most of their populations are mixed race… or are newer race mixes?”
Posted by Anonymous

Interesting question. From what I’ve observed (as in pharmacies), they seem to rely a great deal more on home treatment, do-it-yourself devices, folk remedies, and over-the-counter medicines. Most don’t have the availability of sophisticated medical procedures like surgery and transplants (or simply can’t afford them), so for them that issue hasn’t reached the level of becoming a problem. How many transplants are done in Paraguay or Peru?

“I’m sure any science that conflicts with multi-cult dogma will be brushed aside.”

No doubt!

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