Canadian Blood Services looks for new stem cell donors at VIU
Canadian Blood Services is looking for post-secondary students aged 17 to 35 to become stem cell donors / Photo: Canadian Blood Services
Canadian Blood Services was at Vancouver Island University today calling on students to step up and get their cheeks swabbed. This is in part of the Canadian Blood Services cross BC campus campaign to find those aged 17 to 35 to register to become a stem cell donor.
Adrienne San Juan is the community development manager for the stem cell program at Canadian Blood Services. She said right now there is a large need for donated stem cells.
“So right now, nearly 1,000 people in Canada are currently waiting for a life-saving stem cell transplant,” San Juan said. “Stem cell transplants can actually treat over 80 diseases and disorders, including certain blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma.”
She explained that she joined the donor registry when her sister was in need of a stem cell transplant.
“I'm on the stem cell registry. Actually, the reason why I work for Canadian Blood Services is because my sister needed a stem cell transplant five years ago. Exactly five years ago now she received her transplant.” San Juan said. “Unfortunately, I haven't been called to donate my stem cells yet, but we are lucky enough that there was a match found for my sister.” (7:37-8:02)
As she explained, donating stem cells is different from donating blood. Unlike a blood drive where the donor would donate the blood the same day they register, for stem cells, when the donor registers, they would first have to have the cheeks in their mouth swapped for the human leukocyte antigen (HLA).
“If you happen to be a match with a patient, that's when we will notify you and call you to actually donate your stem cells,” San Juan said. “So when you are attending a registration event, you're not donating your stem cells at that moment, you're just signing up to join the registry to say, ‘Hey, I'm willing to donate my stem cells if I'm ever matched with a patient.’”
Dr Mattew Seftel is a hematologist and transplant physician and the medical director of the stem cells program at Canadian Blood Services. As he explained, blood stem cells are made in bone marrow and are capable of growing and maturing into various mature blood cells. These cells are what sustain life.
“So a stem cell transplant is when you were to take blood stem cells from a healthy donor and provide them to a patient in need, and that is usually given through an intravenous infusion,” Seftel said. “It's taken from the blood system– the veins of a healthy donor, and given through the veins of a patient in need. So it looks a little bit like a blood transfusion.”
He said the protein signatures found on white cells and stem cells make up the HLA system. He explained it is the HLA signurates that must match for those to be able to donate stem cells but it can be tricky as there are a massive variety of HLA variations.
“Finding a match among family members is much more likely, and in general, the chances of finding a family match are approximately one in five,” Seftel said. “That is most commonly from a brother or sister within your family. That's on the assumption that you share the same parents and therefore you've got the same genetic determinants of the HLA from each parent.”
But he did say it is possible to find matches with non-family related donors, and that is why he says donor registration is essential for finding those matches.
“The chances of finding an HLA match as a volunteer is still low. The greater the number of volunteers available, the greater the diversity of HLA amongst the registrants, and the greater the probability of finding a match,” Seftel said.
He also added that finding matches is a lot harder for those with ethnically diverse ancestry.
“So for example, patients who have African ancestry, Asian ancestries, First Nations and Indigenous ancestry. It is likely due to differences in their HLA diversity, and their signatures on the white cells. We also know that the probability of finding a donor is higher if donors were to come from a similar ancestry to the patient. ”
Seftel explained that if a match is found, the donor would be contacted by Canadian Blood Services. Then the donor goes through a health screening to make sure the donor is healthy enough to donate the cells as well as to make sure the cells are healthy enough to be donated.
After the health screening, Seftel explained that the donor would then do some blood work for the confirmation of the donor’s HLA signature. Then the Transplant Centre will decide if the donor is invited to donate their stem cells. This process could take about a week.
Once the donor is invited to donate their cells, they will go to one of the collection centers across Canada to discuss the procedure in more detail and then complete the stem cell collection.
“The most common way that we would collect at one of these donor collection centers is directly from the vein. In other words, there's generally no surgical procedure, it's very rare to undergo them now,” Seftel said. “This consists of removing blood from the veins, not that different to a blood donation.”
He explained that this procedure is very safe and quick.
“In the majority of circumstances, it is a single-day procedure when people come into the hospital, and several hours later, they are able to go home,” Seftel said. “It's extremely safe, and is of course an extremely valuable gift to a patient in need of a blood stem cell transplant.”
The cells then would be transferred fresh to the patient receiving them the same day.
He said that with stem cell donations, it is generally a single donation for a single patient, but in rare circumstances, the donor may be asked to donate a second time if complications occur with the patient at a later stage.
Seftel explained that although there are about half a million people in Canada who have already registered to donate, there are still many people across the country waiting to find their match for a stem cell transplant.
“It's very important that we have a large, ethnically diverse and healthy population of registrants who are interested in an extremely powerful and important gift,” Seftel said. “Their blood stem cells that they can easily replace their donation can be used to cure the patient and there are many, many patients right now in need of a transplant.”
Students can still register to become stem cell donors by going to the Canadian Blood Services’ Swab at School page. As well, non-students aged 17 to 35 can learn how to donate their stem cells at blood.ca/stemcells.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.