Second donation from volunteer hematopoietic stem cell donors in Taiwan

Objectives: Unrelated hematopoietic stem cell donors may donate twice. We studied donors' preference for peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) collection or bone marrow (BM) harvest and compared the yields of and side effects associated with two BM harvests. Materials and Methods: The psychosocial and physical experience of 13 donors who underwent two different stem cell collection procedures and their preferences were collected via a self-reported questionnaire. Among four donors who underwent two BM harvests, we compared the yields of and the side effects associated with the first and second harvest via chart review and self-reported questionnaire, respectively. Results: The median recovery time associated with PBSC (1 day) was significantly shorter than that associated with BM harvest (7 days) (p<0.01). Although most of the donors who underwent both procedures felt that BM harvest was more physically demanding, caused more preprocedural anxiety, was more time consuming, and was more inconvenient than PBSC collection, 63.6% of them preferred BM donation. This preference for BM harvest over PBSC collection is different from previous studies. There was no significant difference in the yields of marrow nucleated cells (p= 0.25) and no significant differences in the incidence of side effects and recovery time between the first and second BM donations. Conclusion: Further understanding of donors' preferences and reducing side effects associated with stem cell harvesting procedures will help the registry improve its work.