One Chance in a Million: An Equilibrium Analysis of Stem Cell Donation

For patients who suffer from leukemia or other blood diseases, a stem cell transplant frequently offers the best chance of survival. Such a transplant is likely to be a life saving event. According to the website of the London Health Sciences Center [4] “Long-term survival may be greater than 80 per cent,... depend-ing on the type of disease treated, the patient’s age, and the severity of illness. For patients with acute leukemia, long-term survival is 50-60 per cent but this is much better than 20-25 per cent survival when patients are treated with chemotherapy alone.... recipients eventually return to a normal lifestyle.” Human bone marrow contains blood-forming stem cells that are destroyed by heavy doses of chemotherapy. These cells, which are necessary for survival, can be replaced by transplanted cells from a healthy donor whose immune system is compatible with that of the recipient. Finding a compatible stem cell donor is vastly more difficult than finding a suitable blood donor.1 The body’s immun