About The Program
As an integral part of the national effort for matching unrelated marrow donors, a marrow donor program was established within the Department of Defense. The primary objectives of this program is the development and application of this distinctive life-saving technology toward the military medical application for rescue of casualties with marrow damage resulting from radiation or certain chemical warfare agents containing mustard. The program was named for Congressman C.W. Bill Young, who initiated and supported the development of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and the DoD program for unrelated donor marrow transplantation. The Department of Defense established the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Center in Washington, DC to support DoD volunteer marrow donors. The C.W. Bill Young Marrow Donor Center coordinates all the medical and logistic support for DoD personnel who volunteer for the possibility of donating marrow.
Established by Congress on 25 May 1990, Public Law 101-302 directed the DoD to:
1. Recruit and HLA
type DoD volunteers as part of the overall national
effort;
2. Expand the Navy medical research program to improve the technology
of identifying donors;
3. Provide support to increase the number of civilian donors with
an
emphasis on improving American minority donor recruitment;
and
4. Support programs tied to the National Marrow Donor Program to
improve military contingency and Homeland Security
capabilities to
respond to both ionizing radiation and chemical-induced
(mustard
containing chemical warfare agents) marrow damage.
A Memorandum from the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) was instituted on 18 June 1991 to implement and administer the DoD wide program in an effort to recruit DoD personnel and their dependents, DoD civil service employees, National Guard, Coast Guard and Reservists and also includes associated research programs. The program was named the C. W. Bill Young Marrow Donor Recruitment and Research Program (the DoD Marrow Donor Program) and the Navy (Bone Marrow Registry Directorate, Naval Medical Research Center) was identified as the Executive Agent.
The DoD program focuses the efforts of this national program towards military contingency and Homeland Security initiatives for the treatment of casualties exposed to marrow toxic injury. The program provides for humanitarian support for patients every day while the same medical technology for treating patients is available to provide rapid and effective marrow rescue for military or civilian casualties exposed to marrow toxic ionizing radiation or chemical agents containing mustards. During both military exercises and recent conflicts, the program demonstrated military medical support capability.
Eligible volunteers under the DoD program include all active duty military members and their dependents, DoD civilians, Coast Guard, National Guard and Reservists, ages 18 to 60 and in good health. A blood sample or buccal swab is taken from volunteers and the samples sent to the C.W. Bill Young/DoD Marrow Donor Program laboratory in Washington, DC. The tissue-type (HLA-human leukocyte antigen) of the volunteer is registered with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) without identifying demographics.
The National Marrow Donor Program is the coordinating center in Minneapolis, MN with over 200 participating organizations, including donor centers, transplant centers, clinical and research laboratories for transplant matching. The NMDP provides a national coordinating center where patients can become matched with volunteers registered at donor centers, like the C.W. Bill Young/DoD Marrow Donor Center. This transplant therapy is used to treat as many as 70 different potentially fatal diseases that can be cured by replacement of diseased marrow from a healthy donor. If a volunteer matches a patient, they will be contacted by a staff member of the C.W.Bill Young/DoD Marrow Donor Center and they will receive extensive counseling and medical evaluation to ensure their desire to proceed with the process and that they are in good health.
The DoD has played a vital role in the development of this life-saving national program due to the established spirit of volunteerism of members within the Armed Forces. The C.W. Bill Young/DoD Marrow Donor Center is one of the largest in the world and provides the largest volume of life-saving marrow for patients throughout the world.