Each patient for whom a DKMS donor is being considered as a potential unrelated donor must satisfy DKMS Registry’s requirements regarding diagnosis. Diagnoses that are standard indications for HSCT do not need to fulfill further requirements. The classification into standard or rare indications is based on WHO’s guidelines:
Arber et al. (2016), `The updated WHO classification of hematological malignancies – The 2016 revision to the World Health Organization classification of myeloid neoplasms and acute leukemia` In: BLOOD, 127:20, pp. 2391-2405.
If the indication for which the transplant center or registry is requesting a donor is not a standard indication for HSCT, DKMS Registry will consult its medical advisor and ask for an assessment of the case. In order to get a decision by the advisor, DKMS Registry may request further clinical information, e.g. an ethics committee vote, the study protocol or relevant case studies, from the transplant center or registry.
Each patient for whom a DKMS donor is requested for workup, must satisfy DKMS Registry’s requirements regarding age. If the age of the patient for whom the transplant center or registry is requesting a donor is above 80 years, DKMS Registry will consult a medical advisor and ask for an assessment of the case. In order to get a decision by the advisor, DKMS Registry may request further clinical information from the transplant center or registry.
An approval by DKMS’ medical advisor is required when HLA matching is <8/10. In order to decide on an approval or non-approval, the medical advisor will need information about the patient's health status, whether the patient is participating in a medical trial, the outcome of the evaluation of alternatives to an unrelated stem cell transplantation (e.g. haploidentical transplantation or CBU), and whether the case has already been discussed in a review/tumor board or by the national medical society of the patient’s country of origin.
Matching lists for donors with ≤8/10 matching are only provided upon request via email and may not be received via EMDIS or other systems.
To search for unrelated donors at DKMS Registry, a donor search has to be initiated by sending relevant patient information. While a preliminary search request only provides match list results on potential stem cell donors, an active search must be started to perform donor requests (e.g. Confirmatory Typing).
Patient HLA typing
Medical and personal data for search and donor request initiation
The following information of the patient must be provided by the transplant center or patient registry at the preliminary and active search stage:
The following additional information must be provided by the transplant center or patient registry at the time of a pre-workup request for a specific donor:
An active donor search must be performed before starting a donor request. Specific information required for a workup request is further defined in the workup section below (chapter 6).
Algorithm
DKMS Registry´s search algorithm Hap-E Search® uses a probabilistic donor-recipient matching algorithm based on haplotype frequencies:
Urban, C., Schmidt, A. H., & Hofmann, J. A. (2020), `Hap-E Search 2.0: Improving the Performance of a Probabilistic Donor-Recipient Matching Algorithm Based on Haplotype Frequencies´, Frontiers in medicine, 7:32. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2020.00032.
Ranking of matching list
10/10 matching list:
9/10 matching list:
DKMS Registry offers a special search support program to transplant centers in Chile, Colombia and India, DKMS Africa support transplant centers in South Africa likewise. This service is not limited to transplant centers in these four countries. It applies to all transplant centers in need of access to unrelated donors. DKMS Registry thereby assists the transplant centers with their national and international unrelated donor and cord blood unit searches. All transplant centers using these services are evaluated according to WMDA criteria (see chapter 3). If you want more information about this program, please contact services@dkmsregistry.org.
All searches, preliminary and active, are free of charge. Searches for donors from DKMS DE, PL, UK, CL, DKMS BMST IN and DKMS Africa at DKMS Registry can be initiated in three different ways:
1. Via the European Marrow Donor Information System (EMDIS)
DKMS Registry (hub code = DR) is connected to several registries via EMDIS. Donor search requests as well as typing requests (TYP_REQ), sample requests for Confirmatory Typing (SMP_REQ), infectious disease marker request (IDM_REQ) and donor reservation requests (RSV_REQ) can be received via EMDIS. See also our EMDIS National Rules available at WMDA or via our website (https://professional.dkms.org/services/dkms-services/dkms-registry-services/emdis-connection-to-dkms-registry) for further information.
2. Via E-Mail/Fax using WMDA forms
DKMS Registry also accepts requests by fax (Fax No. +49 7071 943 2299) or email (services@dkmsregistry.org) for all services. For requests by fax or email, we recommend the use of WMDA forms (https://wmda.info/professionals/optimising-search-match-connect/wmda-forms), but we also accept other forms as long as they contain the information needed to perform the requested task (see chapters 1, 4, 5, 6.)
DKMS Registry will send a search report, consisting of DKMS donor (DE, PL, UK, IN, CL, ZA) matching results, usually within one business day after receipt of the search request.
3. Via Donor Navigator® Software
International registries and transplant centers that are registered users of DKMS Registry´s web application Donor Navigator® can and are encouraged to initiate their donor searches and all subsequent requests through Donor Navigator® in case no EMDIS connection is available.
DKMS Registry expects the requesting registry to stop donor searches with DKMS Registry in case a donor is no longer needed for the patient. Reason for status change should be provided via EMDIS or other communication according to the EMDIS semantics (https://share.wmda.info/x/BYC7BQ). DKMS Registry reserves the right to deactivate a donor search after a reasonable time of inactivity.