Special Report: Summary of the eighth workshop of the worldwide network for blood and marrow transplantation on the status and issues related to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in near-east countries, held in Pakistan from September 22 to 23, 2022.

The eighth workshop of the Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (WBMT) was held in Islamabad, Pakistan, from September 22 to 23, 2022, aiming to foster hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) activity in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO). Participating countries, including Pakistan, Oman, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, reported increased HSCT in the last few years, whereas others from the EMRO and beyond, including Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Nepal, and Bangladesh, started HSCT recently and have developed HSCT programs with excellent results. During educational sessions and open dialog, participating teams and international experts from the WBMT shared their experience and discussed minimum essential requirements for establishing and expanding HSCT in emerging countries, indications for HSCT training and dissemination of knowledge, stem cell donor selection and safety, quality assurance in transplant centers, and the value and importance of transplant outcome databases.

Continuous and differential improvement in worldwide access to hematopoietic cell transplantation: activity has doubled in a decade with a notable increase in unrelated and non-identical related donors.

Promoting access to and excellence in hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) by collecting and disseminating data on global HCT activities is one of the principal activities of the Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, a non-governmental organization in working relations with the World Health Organization. HCT activities are recorded annually by member societies, national registries and individual centers including indication, donor type (allogeneic/autologous), donor match and stem cell source (bone marrow/peripheral blood stem cells/cord blood). In 2018, 1,768 HCT teams in 89 countries (6 World Health Organization regions) reported 93,105 (48,680 autologous and 44,425 allogeneic) HCT.