It is like a bank. But what it saves is more important than money: it saves lives.

Representatives of the Zhonghua Marrow Bank -- also known on the mainland by the less-catchy name of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donor Databank -- met their Taiwan counterparts for the first time in Beijing Tuesday.

Marrow bank workers from both sides of the Straits are on a mission to improve bone marrow transplant access and results. The Tuesday meeting brought together experts and unique resources from the mainland and Taiwan in the hope of generating more bone marrow donor drives.

Beginning in 2001, the Beijing-based marrow bank center, along with its 27 provincial branches, began registering donors around the country. It has registered 130,000 people nationwide and so far matched about 1,300 donors with recipients suffering from leukemia, anemia and other blood-related diseases.

The Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry, the third largest of its kind in the world, has 240,000 records stored and has completed more than 500 successful matches. Since 1997, 230 of its registered donors have saved the lives of mainland Chinese.

The match rate bone marrow is just one in 10,000 for families and one in 100,000 among non-relatives.

Many leukemia patients on the mainland have been lucky to find matches among Taiwanese as a result of the similar genes and ethnicities, said Dr Li Zhengdao. However, due to unnecessary barriers, the matches found on the mainland for Taiwan patients have not yet been delivered to the places where they are badly needed.

"Compared with the database in Japan, which has a membership of 220,000, and other countries, we are far behind and there is still much to do," said Sun Aiming, deputy director of the China Red Cross Society.

The majority of potential bone marrow donors worldwide are Caucasian. The United States has 4.6 million registered donors, while Europe has 3.7 million.

But bone marrow expert Lu Daopei is confident that China will establish one of the biggest marrow databanks in the world as a result of increasing public scientific awareness and the development of science and technology.

Dr. Machteld Oudshoorn, chief operating officer of the World Marrow Donor Association, said that she is most impressed by the efforts made by China's marrow bank and hopes that China will join the international association.

(China Daily June 2, 2004)