How We Help Patients

The National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP) has facilitated more than 50,000 transplants for patients throughout the world who have leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases. As the most comprehensive bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplant resource, we work to provide hope and deliver a cure to all patients in need. The NMDP also operates Be The Match^®.

Providing resources for transplant patients

Be The Match Patient Services has a team dedicated to supporting patients, caregivers, family members and friends. Our patient services coordinators offer free, confidential, one-on-one support and financial guidance. We also offer free educational resources — DVDs, booklets, online tools and more.

You can turn to us when you are learning about your disease and making treatment decisions, or during and after a transplant. Our goal is to help you get what you need, when you need it. We can help you:

Learn about the transplant process
Understand transplant statistics and information
Prepare a financial plan and understand insurance coverage
Get support and connect with other resources

You can contact Be The Match Patient Services.

Matching volunteer donors and cord blood units with patients

If you need a transplant and do not have a matching donor in your family, your doctor can search for an unrelated donor or umbilical cord blood unit for you. Your doctor can work with the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) to search our Be The Match Registry® and other registries around the world — more than 18.5 million potential donors and more than 590,000 cord blood units.

Diversifying the registry to help more patients

For a successful transplant, the tissue type of a bone marrow donor or cord blood unit needs to match the patient's as closely as possible. Because tissue types are inherited, patients are more likely to match someone from their own race or ethnicity.

We have a registry of millions, but we still do not have matched bone marrow donors or cord blood units for all patients, especially those from racially and ethnically diverse communities. We are working to make sure every patient has the best possible chance to receive the transplant he or she needs. Through ongoing initiatives, we work with civic, community, corporate and faith-based organizations to reach people where they live and work.

Conducting research to improve transplant outcomes

We conduct and support research through our partner, the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research^® (CIBMTR). Our goal is to help patients live longer, healthier lives and ensure that donors have an optimal donation experience.