Malaga needs bone marrow donors: a 28.3% drop in one year

Bone marrow donations in Málaga have dropped by 28.3% between October 2024 and the same month in 2025. In the first ten months of the past year, 1,256 new donations were recorded, while in the same period this year, there have been 900, as explained by Gracia María García, the care director at the Málaga Center for Transfusion, Tissues, and Cells. She points out that the peak months are March and November, when collections are made and donation is most promoted, as visits to faculties occur. Nonetheless, the figures will improve once last month's registered donors are accounted for.

García cannot explain this decrease but emphasizes the importance of increasing the number of donors. In 2024, there were a total of 1,505 donors, compared to 1,060 in 2023.

"Donating marrow is important because it is the raw material needed for bone marrow transplants, which are essential for curing certain leukemias that, due to their aggressiveness, require the removal of all pathological marrow from the patient and repopulating it with new healthy marrow," explains Dr. Gracia María García. These are leukemias that cannot be cured with chemotherapy alone, although it is also indicated for treating issues like marrow aplasia or immunodeficiencies.

How to become a donor?

How can one become a donor? "The fundamental requirement is, being between 18 and 40 years old and in good health, to approach a collection event, which is the same in any province of Andalucía, where you can become a marrow donor. There they will explain what the final donation process entails, offer you an informed consent form where you will provide your details to be contacted in case you are compatible, and from that blood sample taken during that first contact, we will study the HLA, which is like the ID of our cells, and which will tell us whether you are compatible with the patient or not," assures Dr. García, adding that up to 10 options are analyzed, "ten digits that are necessary to determine if you are compatible with the patient who needs the bone marrow."

Regional Hospital of Málaga, a key center in bone marrow donation after donor compatibility

Once the patient has given their consent and the HLA has been studied, "in about a month, they are already registered with the Carreras Foundation," which collects data from all the donors in the country. If a request comes to this entity and it is compatible with a donor, everything is managed through the Regional University Hospital of Málaga, the reference center for these matters in the province. "That's where the marrow would be extracted," she explains.

One way is to go directly to the "blood factory in the bones, where we would collect those cells from the larger, more accessible bones, from which a larger quantity of product can be extracted: it would be in the area of the hip, the iliac crests, the sternum." But there is a second method of extracting "those progenitor cells: administer a subcutaneous injection for five days, which will cause those cells inside the bone to enter the bloodstream and, using a machine, over about four hours, will collect the donor's blood, selecting the cells of interest and returning the rest to the donor," she clarifies. "With this process repeated three or four times, depending on the number of cells that need to be extracted, in about four hours in a morning, using a peripheral route, we will obtain that cell and the donor will go home," she adds. This system is known as apheresis.

Procedures

In the case where cells are extracted directly from the bone, the patient must go to the operating room, under general anesthesia, to be "more comfortable and calm: any discomfort will not be suffered and, in some cases, they are admitted overnight for observation and leave that afternoon or the following morning," she adds. Neither of the two options has side effects.

Although everyone can donate, the ideal donor is young, under 40 years old, "it is scientifically known that, when you are transplanted, the response and recovery will be better: we must always be recycling from donors who stop being donors, as they get older. Although they can donate. That is, a person of 55 or 60 years can certainly donate, but if I find a donor of 40 it will be much better for the patient," she reflects.

A very high percentage of patients access a compatible donor for their transplant

In any case, 99% of patients who need it find a donor.