Published research data have clearly defined the relationship between HLA matching and optimal patient outcomes following unrelated adult donor transplantation. Continually working to increase the genetic diversity of the Registry helps to ensure that more patients will be able to locate a suitably matched stem cell product for a transplant. During this time frame, NMDP donor centers (including Department of Defense (DoD)) and recruitment groups added 374,840 minority race and 407,588 Caucasian

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... adult donor volunteers. All were typed for HLA-A, B and DRB1. Navy funding supported the typing of 118,134 of these culturally diverse new donors. Advancing technology improved performance and pricing Continued advances in laboratory methods and supporting equipment have positively impacted the level of typing resolution for newly recruited volunteer donors. As of September 2009: • 84% of new donors received higher than intermediate HLA-A, B typing • 34% of new donors received intermediate HLA-C typing • 100% of new donors received higher than intermediate HLA-DRB1 typing The cost of HLA typing for new volunteer donors decreased by 12.1% between 2007 and 2008. The NMDP's exacting quality control processes have successfully increased the quality of typing received through the contract laboratory network. The effectiveness of this program and the efforts of a highly qualified high-volume HLA typing laboratory network has resulted in a combined HLA class I and class II QC accuracy rate for this period of 99.91%.