When Suleika Jaouad, a 24-year-old writer, found out she would need a bone marrow transplant to cure her cancer, doctors told her that her mixed ethnicity — Tunisian and Swiss — could make it difficult to find an unrelated donor. Fortunately, Jaouad’s brother turned out to be a perfect match. But for the roughly 40% of Arab patients who cannot find a match in their own family, the odds of finding an unrelated match are not in their favor.
It can be hard for Arab cancer patients to find a genetically compatible donor — and even harder for interracial Arabs like Jaouad — on international bone marrow registries, since Arabs make up only a tiny portion of registered donors. In fact, the only extensive unrelated Arab bone marrow registry is located in the Arab world’s least favorite country — Israel.