§ Mr. Cyril Smithasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if his Department will provide financial assistance to the Westminster Hospital to build up a register of potential bone marrow donors and to carry out further research into bone-marrow deficiency disease.
§ Mr. MoyleAlthough the transplantation of bone marrow from closely related donors with compatible tissue types is now an established form of treatment. transplantation from unrelated donors is at an experimental stage and very few successful cases have been reported from anywhere in the world.
After detailed discussions last winter between my Department and experts in bone marrow transplanation and related subjects, it was decided that, given the present state of knowledge of tissue types, it would be premature to establish a national panel of bone marrow donors. A number of NHS units are already 649W tissue-typing potential donors and so that they may do so using agreed procedures, a working party has been established to advise on the basic minimum of data recording and on mechanisms for quality control of histocompatibility testing foi panels of possible volunteer donors.
We are at present awaiting a revised application for a research grant from Westminster Hospital.