Nigeria launches bone marrow registry

Nigeria has launched a new bone marrow registry that will link cancer patients and donors locally and throughout the world.

The launch of the registry is the first in Nigeria, and only the second of such registry in all of Africa. This launch is a milestone step in the country’s efforts to treat cancer patients throughout Africa and the world.

Millions of Nigerians suffer from blood disorders that can be successfully treated through bone marrow and cord blood transplants. For instance, leukemia and lymphoma are common blood cancers in Nigeria that can be cured with bone marrow transplantation. Around 1-2 million people suffer from sickle cell disease and some of them are qualified for bone marrow transplantation that can result in their cure. Nigerian cancer patients have less than a 20 per cent-25 per cent chance of survival, and until now, if Nigerian patients were lucky enough to find matching donors, they had to travel to South Africa or further abroad for treatment.

Now that Nigeria will have its own registry, patients will be able to look to their own for possible donors.

“Nigeria is home to one-quarter of Africa’s population, with almost 400 distinct ethnic groups,” said Ifeoma Okoye and Sunday Ocheni, co-directors of the registry. “The sheer size and diversity of Nigeria’s population make it an ideal location for a new stem cell registry.”

The registry will also link Nigerian patients and donors to international donor pools and give patients around the world a better chance of finding a match. “The African diaspora is vast and its genetic diversity makes it challenging for people of African ancestry to find matches for lifesaving transplant,” said Funmi Olopade, Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. “One out of every five black people in the world is Nigerian and by establishing this bone marrow registry in Nigeria, we are improving the odds that a patient desperately in need of transplant will find a donor.”

In the US alone, African American cancer patients have less than a 17 per cent chance of finding a suitable match – compared to nearly 70 per cent chance for Caucasian patients. “Research has shown that the most cost-effective way of increasing the number of donors is to add people from African descent,” said Seun Adebiyi, who is training to become Nigeria’s first Winter Olympic athlete and was instrumental in getting the registry off the ground.

“It’s a two way street – the registry will allow Nigerian donors and patients to connect with each other and it will connect them with international donors and patients.”

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