After scanning 55,000 test-tubes collected in the massive bone marrow donation campaign in israel, 8 matches were found between potential donors and patients

After lab testing 55,000 test tubes (out of the 62,000 collected on the day of the drive), eight of them matched up to patients needing a stem cell donation. However, no matching donor has been found among the samples for Amit Kadosh, who was at the focus of this latest campaign.

Now, another 22,000 test tubes are in the process of being scanned - both the ones remaining from the collection on the day of the campaign as well as those collected on an ongoing basis at the enlistment base of the IDF, in the hope that a matching donor will be found among them.

Regarding the eight potential donor/recipient matches that were found - at this time, further testing is being done, to see if and when the transplants can be performed. Names of the potential donors and recipients are kept confidential until a year after the successful stem cell transplant. As of today, Ezer Mizion's Bone Marrow Donor Registry numbers about 440,000 potential stem cell donors.

Dr. Bracha Zisser, director of Ezer Mizion's Bone Marrow Donor Registry: "One of the fringe benefits of the campaign is the increased awareness, which we see especially among soldiers who come to the recruitment base and ask to join the registry. The odds of finding a match among the soldiers is 1:244. This is a remarkable statistic, since in regard to the rest of the population, the statistic ranges from 1:10,000 to 1:30,000. We are still hoping and praying that a matching stem cell donor will be found for Amit among the test tubes that remain, and are hopeful that we will have good news in the near future."

Tissue typing of the blood samples following the drive is carried out in a genetic tissue typing laboratory in Israel, which is capable of the necessary DNA classification, and in a laboratory in Los Angeles, where the test tubes were flown. Receiving the blood samples, scanning them, deriving and classifying the DNA are a complex process that takes time. The process must be done in a secure and specialized manner so as to preclude errors, and the nature of such processes is that they are not quick. However no effort is being spared to carry them out at the maximum possible speed in the hope of saving lives.