Cheek swab to revolutionise fight against cancer
A simple swab of the cheek for DNA will revolutionise stem cell and bone marrow donation in Australia — leading to potentially hundreds more lifesaving matches for blood cancer patients each year.
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A simple swab of the cheek for DNA will revolutionise stem cell and bone marrow donation in Australia leading to potentially hundreds more lifesaving matches for blood cancer patients each year.
The Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) and the Leukaemia Foundation yesterday announced a joint campaign urging more than 5000 young, ethnically diverse Australian men aged 18 to 30 to register as donors to meet growing demand.
Saturday is World Marrow Donor Day.
Donor registration will be made more accessible and easier under a 12-month Australian-first pilot program in which would-be donors can register online to receive a cheek swab test by post.
Once the cheek swab is returned by mail, potential donors will be placed on the national Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
The trial began earlier this month.
If matched, donors will be able to give stem cells and bone marrow for transplant, changing the lives of more than 850 Australian blood cancer and blood disorder patients searching for a donor each year.
Only 40 per cent of Australian patients will find a match and the bulk of those matches are from donors on overseas registers.
Until now, a blood donation was the main method in Australia to register for stem cell and bone marrow donation. People can still register to donate this way.
ABMDR CEO Lisa Smith said cheek swab registration was used by 95 per cent of stem cell and bone marrow registers worldwide, some for several years.
Ms Smith said Australia’s register needed greater multicultural diversity, especially for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those whose country of origin did not have registers, such as India and Greece.
“While we welcome all new donors, the reality is, young men make particularly important donors as they often weigh more and therefore literally have more to give.”
The Leukaemia Foundation says more than 600 Australians living with blood cancer will need a stem cell transplant to survive and that number is rising.
“We know that if there are more Australian stem cell donors, more people will survive their blood cancer,” said Leukaemia Foundation CEO Bill Petch.
The Leukaemia Foundation’s recently released State of the Nation: Blood Cancer in Australia report says 15,000 new blood cancer cases will be diagnosed in Australia this year and will rise to 36,000 new cases each year by 2035.
For more information, visit www.lf.strengthtogive.org.au.
TANIA’S GLOBAL SEARCH CONTINUES
A Middleton mum’s global search for a bone marrow match - which has gained international celebrity support - is now almost into its third year.
Tania Murphy was diagnosed in July 2016 with one of the nation’s deadliest blood cancers - acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
Despite significant odds, Mrs Murphy has been in remission for more than two years following intensive chemotherapy.
Just 28 per cent of all AML patients survive to five years.
Mrs Murphy will need a bone-marrow transplant should the cancer return.
“Every time the cancer comes back, it comes back more aggressive and it gets harder to get back into remission,” she told The Advertiser.
“But I like to keep positive and try to stay away from the statistics as every case is unique.”
The 47-year-old mum of two has Croatian and Irish heritage - creating a complex tissue type that’s proven difficult to match.
Millions of registered donors in Australia, the UK, US, Ireland, Canada and Croatia have been cross-checked – however just under three per cent of donors are of multiple ethnicity.
An international social media campaign seeking donors for Mrs Murphy saw tweets re-posted by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, Hollywood legend William Shatner, pop music royalty Boy George, documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux, Aussie comedian Magda Szubanski and burns survivor and author Turia Pitt.
Mrs Murphy says the ability to test suitable donors by cheek swab in Australia, as has been the practice in US and Canada, would “definitely’” save more lives.
“I think it’s incredible,” she says. “I know how nervous some people are about needles and blood tests – this will make it so much more accessible and easy and lots more people will hopefully donate.”