Published : 2025-12-25

On 25 December 2002, the Data Bank of China Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donors (CMDP)'s network system was officially established and put into operation.

This operational network system is a management software that integrates data entry, transmission, and search and retrieval, and it can manage the data of a million volunteers.

At that time, 13 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning, and Shandong, had initially established sub-registries, and these sub-registries were responsible for the work of mobilisation, organisation, recruitment, registration, and blood sample collection for local haematopoietic stem cell donor volunteers.

To ensure the quantity and quality of the volunteer data testing, the CMDP organised experts to successively review 17 laboratories in the 13 provinces and municipalities, with most of the laboratories passing the acceptance inspection.

By the end of 2002, the CMDP had successfully matched over 60 cases and performed successful haematopoietic stem cell transplant surgeries for 31 patients.

In China, over four million people suffer from various diseases such as leukaemia, severe aplastic anaemia, severe immunodeficiency, acute radiation sickness, and immunodeficiency following radiotherapy and chemotherapy for malignant tumours; among them, the number of new leukaemia patients alone increases by more than 40,000 each year.

Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the most advanced and effective method for treating these diseases, but a complete white blood cell match between the donor and patient is a prerequisite for performing the transplant surgery.

Statistics show that the compatibility rate among siblings is approximately one in four, but as China has many only children, the chance of finding a compatible donor among siblings is relatively low, whereas for non-blood relations the matching compatibility rate is only one in 400 to one in tens of thousands.

Therefore, the more donor data the registry contains, the higher the chance for patients to find a compatible donor.