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![Two smiling young men, who are donor and patient, stand side by side on a platform with their arms around each other. The guy on the left wears a white Adidas t-shirt, the other one on the right a light green patterned shirt and beige shorts. In the background, a river, boats, and a city skyline are visible.]( "Two smiling young men, who are donor and patient, stand side by side on a platform with their arms around each other. The guy on the left wears a white Adidas t-shirt, the other one on the right a light green patterned shirt and beige shorts. In the background, a river, boats, and a city skyline are visible.")
![A young man and a woman, who are donor and patient, share a warm hug outdoors, both smiling joyfully. The man is wearing a white shirt and dark pants, while the woman is dressed in a floral blouse and pink pants. Mountains and a field can be seen in the blurred background.]( "A young man and a woman, who are donor and patient, share a warm hug outdoors, both smiling joyfully. The man is wearing a white shirt and dark pants, while the woman is dressed in a floral blouse and pink pants. Mountains and a field can be seen in the blurred background.")
![A close-up of a donor's hand holding a red heart-shaped stress ball with the DKMS logo during a stem cell donation. Medical tubes and equipment are visible in the background.]( "A close-up of a donor's hand holding a red heart-shaped stress ball with the DKMS logo during a stem cell donation. Medical tubes and equipment are visible in the background.")
Boost Stem Cell Donations
Connecting patients with lifesaving stem cell donors
The core of our mission is to provide patients with matching stem cell donors to save as many lives as possible. For DKMS, everything began with one family looking for a genetic twin for their loved one in 1991. Today, over 12,5 million potential lifesavers are registered with DKMS, and every day, 25 DKMS donors are giving their stem cells to patients in need.
If someone is diagnosed with blood cancer or a blood disorder and their doctors decide that a stem cell transplant is their best chance of survival, the search for a matching donor begins.
The first step is to check whether any of the patient’s siblings are eligible to donate. However, less than one third of patients find a matching donor within their family. If there are no matching family members, the search for an unrelated donor begins with search coordinators checking stem cell donor registries for the patient around the world. There are several registries worldwide, with DKMS being the largest. To date, our DKMS donors have already given more than 120,000 second chances at life.
Around 35% of all unrelated blood stem cell transplants worldwide are made possible by DKMS donors.
Over the past three decades, we have opened Donor Centers in Germany, the United States, Poland, the United Kingdom, Chile, India, and South Africa to grow and diversify the donor pool. By registering donors in seven countries, we have increased the ethnic diversity of our database and with it the probability for patients of all backgrounds to find their genetic twin.
“Every registered donor is a strong symbol of hope for those facing the toughest moment of their lives and every second chance at life is a testament to the power of our global community.” - Dr. Elke Neujahr, Global Chief Executive Officer of the DKMS Group
The donor journey – We are there every step along the way
Before a registered donor can become a lifesaver, they pass a few important steps along the way to their stem cell donation. We are there on every step of the way and ensure the donor's safety and highest quality of the stem cell collection. To do so, we run our own DKMS Collection Centers, our state-of-the-art DKMS Life Science Lab as well as the DKMS Stem Cell Bank.
Our Three Pillars
Our efforts to give as many blood cancer patients as possible a second chance at life are based on three pillars.
