Why Banking Umbilical Cord Blood Should Be on Your “To Do” List
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The umbilical cord blood industry is becoming more prevalent with the increase in reliability upon science and technology. The stem cell industry continues to conduct research and host trials which test the effects of use of cord blood stem cells against a disease. Still, many expecting families are undecided as to whether or not they should store, and if so, why? As a leader in the biotechnology field, we believe it is our job to educate families on the importance and benefits of storing stem cells to ensure a healthy future.
Ensure your baby’s healthy future
Many believe the most important key to longevity is health. In today’s world, diseases are all too common. According to cancer.gov, “The number of people living with a cancer diagnosis reached nearly 14.5 million in 2014, and is expected to rise to almost 19 million by 2024.” Clinical trials and transplant procedures have been underway with hematopoietic cells, in order to help treat the cancer disease. While some may look to a bone marrow transplant for treatment, the stem cells in a cord blood sample can be used to replace diseased cells and generate new healthy cells. Bone marrow transplants also seem to be a more invasive procedure, while umbilical cord blood transplants are much simpler.
Your family could benefit from your baby’s cells
(Excerpt from parentsguidetocordblood.com) "The two important measures of patient outcome are: long-term survival, and the impact on quality of life from graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). Sibling donors tend to trigger less GvHD. Also, sibling donors are available faster than searching for an unrelated donor, and patients have better survival when they go to transplant faster after diagnosis. The exact comparison of outcome between sibling and unrelated donor varies with the patient diagnosis. The NMDP website has a page on this, with numerous references. For many cancers the outcomes are comparable, although sibling donors have a slight edge. The largest study was by Weisdorf et al. 2002, for over 2900 patients with CML leukemia. When correcting for all other factors, the survival with sibling donor vs unrelated donor was 68% vs. “61%. Sibling donors show a significant improvement for pediatric umbilical cord blood transplants of hereditary disorders. The European Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group (EBMT) reported 3 year survival rates of 95% from a sibling donor vs. 61% from an unrelated donor." References: Weisdorf, D.J. et al. Blood 2002; 99:1971-1977. Bizzetto, R. et al. (EBMT) Haematologica 2011; 96(01):134-141
