Therapeutic Advantages of Cord Blood

Giving your patients every advantage.

This is an exciting, overwhelming time for the expectant parents you serve. Ensure they don’t overlook the value of preserving their newborns’ stem cells, by providing them with the necessary tools to make the right decision for their families.

Why shouldn’t my patients discard their newborn’s umbilical cord blood at birth?

Relating to the disposition of their newborn’s umbilical cord blood, all expectant parents generally have the option to:

• Preserve as a potential autologous (self) benefit for the newborn, and possibly for the newborn's sibling(s) and other family members
• Donate for use by an unrelated recipient, for allogeneic transplants or for research
• Discard at birth as medical waste

Many will certainly come to you for advice. Since your counsel could impact the potential saving of a life, you should consider all of the following vital information before you respond to their queries:

• Medical researchers have discovered umbilical/placental cord blood is rich in stem cells
• Stem cells produce other blood cells and can rebuild the immune system
• Cord blood stem cells have been successfully transplanted and used to treat a number of diseases

Every month, hundreds of OB/GYN's are joining their peers in advising their patients to not discard their baby's umbilical cord blood at birth—one day potentially saving a life.

Why should my patients preserve their newborn’s umbilical cord blood stem cells?

Fifty-nine percent of all pregnant women already have one or more children in their family. Transplanters have shown that cord blood transplants between siblings have a greater chance for engraftment than bone marrow transplants between unrelated donors and recipients. Moreover, there is less chance for graft-vs-host disease following a transplant. Therefore, mothers in this category should seriously consider preserving umbilical cord blood stem cells for their families first.

Also, since the patients own the preserved U-Cord® specimen, there is no charge for retrieval if needed (public banks can charge $15,000 to $25,000 or more for providing a match). Umbilical cord blood stem cells preserved at Cryo-Cell International, Inc., is immediately available if needed. And, parents using a stored specimen reserved for their family would not deplete the public banks' inventory—which means sample is saved to treat another patient. What’s more, preserved umbilical cord blood enables first-time mothers and families to potentially take advantage of evolving stem cell technology.

Can you state any clinical experience with cord blood transplantation?

• First reported transplant: In 1988, for a child with Fanconi's anemia (sibling was the source)
• Study: 85 percent of 44 patients receiving cells from a sibling had engraftment
• Study: 15 of 20 patients had engraftment after receiving placental blood from unrelated donors, even with HLA mismatches
• Study: 562 recipients of placental blood confirmed engraftment was achieved in patients who received an adequate dose of nucleated cells
• Decreased risk of both chronic and acute graft-vs-host disease, especially when donor and recipient are related

Can a transplant story illustrate the case for preserving umbilical cord stem cells?

February 1, 2003

A three-year-old boy diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma was treated with a cord blood stem cell transplant using cryopreserved hematopoietic stem cells from a younger sibling. The transplant was indicated after the patient failed to respond to standard chemotherapy. The donor was a perfect HLA match, and engraftment occurred at day 13 post-transplant. The patient remains in remission, 4+ years after transplant.

The cord blood was collected approximately two months prior to the transplant, at the birth of the patient's sibling. The 145 ml of cord blood collected contained 5.306 million of the CD 34+ cells that are essential for successful engraftment. The cord blood was processed by Cryo-Cell. A density gradient separation process was used to remove the red blood cells and plasma, isolating the mononuclear white blood cells. These cells were then mixed with DMSO, the cryoprotectant, and stored in cryovials with autologous plasma and media in Cryo-Cell’s cryogenic storage facility. HLA testing was conducted and determined that the two male siblings were an identical match. The blood was stored until the patient's health status was stable enough to proceed with the transplant.

The transplant procedure was performed at All Children's Hospital, St. Petersburg, Florida. In order to ablate the bone marrow in preparation for the transplant, the patient underwent three days of Total Body Irradiation (TBI) followed by two days of high-dose cyclophosphamide chemotherapy. After one day of rest, the patient received his cord blood infusion.

The patient remains in remission. All post-transplant testing has determined that the child's engraftment status is 100 percent donor origin, with all blood components of his hematopoietic system being ‘grown’ from his new bone marrow.

The use of cord blood stem cells is an accepted clinical therapy for the treatment of leukemia, lymphomas and other life-threatening diseases. This use of cord blood for the treatment of hematological malignancies was pioneered in the early 1990s. Stem cells derived from cord blood have been shown to have certain advantages over bone marrow including less need for stringent HLA matching and less severe graft-versus-host disease.

This transplant case summary was prepared with information supplied by a Transplant Coordinator at All Children's Hospital and Cryo-Cell, and with the consent of the patient's family.