Why Ethnicity Matters for Bone Marrow Matches

"Diversity" has become something of a buzz word in corporate circles; it's used in vision and mission statements, and you'd probably be hard pressed to find a company's core values that didn't reference diversity in some way or another.

When it comes to the National Marrow Donor Program registry, minority donors are significantly underrepresented, as these numbers from bethematch.org show:

• Caucasians have a 97% chance of finding a donor match
• African-Americans have a 76% chance of finding a match
• Asian-Americans have an 84% chance of a match
• American Indians and Alaskan natives 90%
• Hispanics have an 83% chance of a match

There's an excellent article by Hiu Chung So at www.cityofhope.com. It's a good read on why the need for diversity cannot be overstated.