A Polish donor recently saved the life of a Romanian leukemia patient via the new National Register for Volunteer Donors of Stem Cells.

The first stem cell transplant using the new system was done on August 1, after the Polish donor had signed up in the register three week prior. Four more stem cell transplants will take place in the future at the Targu Mures clinic and at the Fundeni Institute in Bucharest.

The National Register was created after Romanian TV channel ProTV started a series of investigations in 2008, uncovering that Romania is among the few countries in the world where leukemia patients, or those with any other type of blood cancer are left to die if they do not have a donor in their family. A year later, the campaign started by ProTV triggered authorities to create the Stem Cell Donors Register. The register's webpage is here (in Romanian).

Stem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells. Stem cells can be taken from umbilical cord blood just after birth, as well as from adult donors, from their bone marrow, adipose tissue and blood.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: photoexpress.com)