Bone marrow subsidiary bank set up in east China
( 2001-08-25 11:42 ) (8 )

A bone marrow bank has been set up in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, as a subsidiary of China Marrow Bank.

Operated by the Red Cross Society, China Marrow Bank expects to gather at least 100,000 samples to meet the needs of leukemia sufferers in China. It has managed to collect some 30,000 samples so far.

Sources say the establishment of the Shandong subsidiary is "an important move to expand the marrow bank". Ten more subsidiary banks will be set up in other Chinese provinces.

Up to now, 15,000 citizens in Shandong have volunteered to donate bone marrow to the subsidiary bank.

Transplantation of bone marrow stem cells is an effective way to treat blood diseases including leukemia.

Statistics show that the incident rate of leukemia in China is about four per 100,000, and fifty percent of the sufferers are youngsters. Shandong Province alone reports over 3,000 new cases of leukemia each year.