World Blood Cancer Day 2019

The National Registry of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Voluntary Donors together with the Federation of Associations of Cancer Patients (FABC), the Romanian Association Against Leukemia (RAIL) and the Romanian Society of Medullary Transplantation (SRTM) organized a press conference on the occasion of the World Day against Blood Cancers. The event took place today, May 28, at 10.00, at ARCUB, in the Arcelor Hall.

World Blood Cancer Day is marked every year on May 28, and its symbol, & sign colored in red, shows solidarity with people affected by blood cancers. This day is important because:

  • Every 35 seconds, somewhere in the world, someone is diagnosed with blood cancer.
  • For many patients with blood cancers, the solution is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
  • Every year, more than 80,000 people around the world look for a compatible donor of stem cells outside the family. Many of them never find him.
  • In over 70% of cases, the compatible donor is not within the family.
  • There are 30 patients in Romania who are waiting for a suitable donor.
  • For almost 50% of Romanian patients who do not have a related donor, there are currently no compatible donors anywhere in the world and do not have the chance to have a hematopoietic stem cell transplant that could save their lives.

Every year in Romania per 100,000 inhabitants are diagnosed 3 patients with blood cancers (lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma) and for whom the only therapeutic solution is the transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells.

Any healthy person aged between 18 and 45 can become a potential donor of hematopoietic stem cells, and from now on the registration in the Register is made even more simply, without moving to any center of hematopoietic stem cell donors. Just go to www.regu-cellule-stem.ro/involved/, fill in the form with your personal contact details and we ship you home the harvesting kit with the instructions for use – it is very easy to collect your own samples and it takes only 5 minutes.

About Blood and Blood Cancers

Blood circulates through our veins and arteries with the aim of transporting nutrients and oxygen to the tissues and organs in the body. In the roughly five liters of blood circulating through the human body, there are billions of blood cells with different functions, vital for life.

There are three types of blood cells:

  • tomatoes (erythrocytes) – are the most and have the role of transporting oxygen,
  • white (leukocytes) – fights microbes and acts as immune system cells,
  • Platelets – have a role in blood clotting, stop bleeding in case of wounds.

Blood cells form in the bone marrow that is found in the cavity of the bones, for example in the bones of the pelvis, or sternum.

One of the key defense mechanisms of the human body is cell death. Blood cells that become unhelpful or damaged die and thus protect the body from diseases. That’s why the body has to produce many hundreds of billions of new blood cells every day.

All blood cells come from hematopoietic stem cells. Stem cells are the so-called mother cells that have not yet taken over a specific function. They can multiply themselves and specialize in a specific function, thus replacing dead cells.

Sometimes, however, defects occur in the natural process of maturation and death of cells, and this leads to the formation of immature or dysfunctional blood cells, called cancer cells or non-self cells. Arriving in the circulatory system, they multiply uncontrollably, they take over the functions of the blood cells and do not die naturally.

There are three large groups of blood cancers:

  • Leukemias
  • Multiple myelomas
  • malignant lymphomas (cancers of the lymph nodes)

For many patients with blood cancers, stem cell transplantation from unrelated compatible donors is the only chance at life. Healthy stem cell transplantation helps the patient’s bone marrow to regenerate healthy stem cells itself again.

 

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