Finding a Donor

A bone marrow or stem cell donor for your child will need to be identified by HLA typing before your child comes to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance for a transplant. (You can read general information about HLA typing in our adult bone marrow transplant section.)

If your child does not have a sibling or other family member who is a close match, we will look for an unrelated donor through the National Marrow Donor Registry. We will work with your referring physician to begin the search for an unrelated donor.

If your child’s donor is a sibling or other family member, the donor will come to Seattle for the transplant. If your child has an unrelated donor, that donor will have bone marrow or stem cell collection done at a hospital close to where he or she lives. The product will be hand carried to our center on the day of transplant, or the unrelated umbilical cord blood product will be shipped to our center before the transplant conditioning regimen begins.

The book “Preparing for Transplant,” which will be sent to you when you make an appointment for your child at SCCA, contains detailed information about donor options as well as information for donors. You may also want to read about what happens when a sibling is the donor.