Transplant physicians start looking for a matching donor in the patient’s family, but will extend the search when no matching donor is available in the family. Alternatives for a matching family donor may be:
- family members who are not a complete HLA match;
- unrelated adult volunteers who are a complete HLA match;
- umbilical cord blood units that are a complete HLA match; or
- unrelated volunteers or umbilical cord blood units that are not a complete HLA match.