Héma-Québec wants its stem cell registry to be more ethnically diverse

Polytechnique Montreal hosted a “Swab The World” info and swabbing booth on Monday.

The booth, in tandem with Héma-Québec, encouraged people to sign up for their stem cell donor registry, as part of a blood drive hosted at Polytechnique on the same day. Their registry is part of a worldwide network that counts over 40 million potential donors.

For four hours Monday, students were able to sign up for the registry at the booth by filling out a form and performing a buccal swab.

When Maude Cohen, Polytechnique’s president, heard about Swab The World’s work, she wanted to be a part of the effort to expand the province’s stem cell registry. Her son, Raphael Bots, was the recipient of a stem cell transfer due to his leukemia, so she holds this issue close to her heart.

Both Cohen and Mai Duong, Swab The World’s co-founder, find the university setting a very fitting one for this campaign, as it reaches the ideal demographic. According to Canadian Blood Services, the ideal age to donate stem cells is from 17 to 35, as young donors are associated with a better survival rate for patients.

More importantly though, the university welcomes students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, which helps diversify the registry. Ethnic diversity is important for the registry because it will help a larger amount of people find a genetic match and will ultimately save more lives.

The Swab The World initiative aims to have Héma-Québec’s stem cells registry be as ethnically diverse as possible. According to Swab The World, only eight per cent of donors are multi-ethnic, and 1.6 per cent of donors are Black.

As of 2016, the MD Anderson Cancer Centre reports that minorities made up only 25 per cent of donors in the NMDP registry, according to Cheekswab, an organization dedicated to increasing minority participation, meaning minorities have a 66 to 73 per cent chance of finding a matching donor through the registry, when Caucasians have a 93 per cent likelihood of finding a match.

Corinne Grefford, a nurse for Héma-Québec there to help with the campaign, says the “more people will be on the registry, more chance we’re going to have to find a donor for the patients who are waiting for a stem-cell graft. You have to know that right now it’s about one patient on two that doesn’t find a donor.”

Bots said he was lucky to find several genetic matches during his search, and believes Swab The World’s work with Héma-Québec will offer a fair chance to all cancer patients in need of a transfer.

“It’s really a message that comes from my heart to try to diversify the database for stem cells donors so that other kids that weren’t as fortunate as me can have the same opportunity I had to continue living,” Bots said

Cohen says this is the first of many stem cell registries to come at the university, and she hopes this event will raise awareness on the subject so that they can help more people and give everyone an equal chance of survival.

Duong says the donation process once someone has been matched is “very very very easy,” and doesn’t require surgery for 85 per cent of the cases.

“Just a couple of hours, just a couple of needles to save lives,” Duong said.