Why getting the funding for Cheek Swab Registration is so important!

Many other countries use a swab program for registration - Lets join the party! More registrations mean more lives saved.

Every year, over 300 Australian patients with blood cancers, bone marrow failure and major genetic diseases receive a potentially life-saving and curative transplant of stem cells (HSC) from an unrelated adult donor. 

Australia’s stem cell donor pool cannot meet local needs and performs poorly in comparison to other countries. In fact no other country relies so heavily on donors so far away from their patients. We rely on importing cells from which is expensive and was, and still is, fraught with difficulty, particularly during the pandemic.   The donor pool in desperate need of renewal in terms of ethic diversity and the need for younger donors, particularly young men who make up less than 5% of the donor pool, whereas 3 out of 4 times are they are the donor of choice, if there is an option.

As a proud nation where helping a mate is part of the fabric of our society, we need to stand up and help grow our registry to decrease the burden placed on other countries, but also because we are part of a global community and need to do our share in contributing to others in need across the globe.

We need to harness the benefits of the internationally accepted and utilised method of donor recruitment which involves online registration and swab kits which are mailed out to recipients. This form of registration appeals in particular to the age group which is being targeted, ie the 18 - 35 year olds.

This model is standard practice because it can recruit large numbers of highly committed donors, without the unsustainable levels of face-to-face interaction required under a blood-dependent model.

Strength to Give, which initiated delivery of this registration method in Australia, through a series of short term projects, has successfully recruited 12,000 new donors and those donors have been younger than those recruited by blood donor-based recruitment.

Strength to Give needs to be extended in both scale and duration so that they can grow the register, promote the urgent need for recruitment, educate the community about stem cell donation and dispel the myths that exist. One of the main barriers at the moment is fundamental lack of awareness of either the need for stem cell donors or the existence of the registry.

Renewal of the Registry cannot wait. The adverse consequences of the limited donor pool in Australia impacts patients today, who risk relapsing while they wait an extra month for their imported cells to arrive, or longer if they are one of the unlucky patients whose imported cells arrived in an unsuitable condition for transplant. And they impact governments today, as they are not only accountable for these patient outcomes but also the cost of HSC importation continuing to rise uncontrollably. There is no certainty that these adverse impacts won’t suddenly deteriorate further because of a shift in the pandemic situation that, while not predicted, should nevertheless be expected.  

Would you believe that the money required to recruit the number of people we need to get our donor pool up to scratch is just sitting there in a bank account? We aren’t asking governments for additional funding but simply approval to use existing funds for this purpose! It would only cost $13 million to reach the required target numbers to create the donor registry that we need.⁠ Also importing stem cells from overseas is very expensive when compared to using local stem cells.⁠ The figures are in the vicinity of well over $30,000 to import cells vs up to no more than $4,000 for local cells!⁠ When we are importing 85% of stem cells, switching to cheek swabs so we can find more local matches seems like a no-brainer!

Strength to Give urgently need a decision by the state and federal governments to fund the expansion of the Registry on an ongoing basis. The endless cycle of reports needs to stop. A decision was expected in November  following a commissioned report, this was pushed back to January and the decision has still not been made. A decision is needed now. 

Australian Marrow Match has almost a 700 people who have registered their interest to join the Register. Although they have been offered the option to join via Lifeblood they have not taken up that option, instead opting to wait for the very efficient and user friendly swab registration process. 700 stem cell donors is a lot of lives that could be saved. 

If you feel strongly about this issue get, in touch with your local sitting candidate and the candidates who are putting themselves up for election and ask them what their view of the funding crisis is and whether they are prepared to bat for all those people in Australia who are in need of a stem cell donation from and unrelated donor. Let’s get on board and make it happen!