Chosun Jeonnam National University Hospital Launches 'Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donation Hope Registration' Campaign

Linked with Catholic University College of Medicine

Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital recently announced on the 3rd that it conducted the ‘First Step to Save Lives, Join Us in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donation Hope Registration’ campaign together with the Catholic University College of Medicine’s Catholic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Bank.

‘Hematopoietic stem cells’ are known as the mother cells that produce blood. Patients with blood cancers such as leukemia can be completely cured by receiving a hematopoietic stem cell transplant from a healthy donor.

Recently, due to the rise of nuclear families, it has become difficult to find donors with matching human leukocyte antigen (HLA) among blood relatives, leading to the need to find unrelated donors.

The cumulative waiting list for hematopoietic stem cell transplants is about 6,000 people, with approximately 500 new cases occurring annually, and the total number of registered hopeful donors in South Korea has been reported to exceed 400,000.

However, this number is still insufficient, and a ‘Sharing Relay’ campaign is underway aiming to increase the number of registered hopeful donors to 500,000, about 1% of the population.

Son Obong, head of the Social Work Team at Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital, said, “Hematopoietic stem cell donation is a meaningful act of sharing life that offers a new chance at life to patients with blood cancers such as leukemia. Through this campaign, we hope to improve awareness about hematopoietic stem cell donation and that individual small interests will lead to a rewarding sharing relay that can save someone’s life.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.