Saving it for later
Too few expectant parents are aware of the options they have to save their newborn's cord blood. Advances in medicine over the past decade have clearly demonstrated the value of the cells remaining in the cord after birth. It seems to be a well-kept secret considering the statistics that less than 2% of the Canadian population has collected their infant's cord blood.
It's no secret that these cells have successfully treated more than 45 different diseases and the thousands of cord blood transplant recipients know the value of these cells.
One of the oldest cord blood facilities in Canada, Cells for Life in Markham, Ontario is committed to sharing their knowledge and expertise about the merits of cord blood stem cells. They want to increase awareness of the options parents have for this opportunity that presents only at birth.
Options today include: Collecting and storing privately for your own family use; donating the cord blood for use by another individual in need; or continuing with the current practice of discarding the cord blood as medical waste. The choice is individual and knowledge is essential in order to make an informed decision. To help with the decision, it is important to know the facts:
Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord after birth. Like bone marrow, it is rich in stem cells. These stem cells are known as the building blocks of the blood and immune systems.
Collected easily at birth, the procedure is simple and does not interfere with the process of birth, nor does it cause any harm to mother or baby.
Once collected, the cord blood is delivered to the cord blood facility such as Cells for Life for processing. Processing carefully isolates the valuable cells and cryopreserves the hundreds of millions of stem cells that will be stored as a potential option for the treatment of disease.
To date the use of these stem cells has been focused toward the areas of transplant following chemotherapy for treatment of diseases such as Leukemia, Lymphoma and blood disorders. Incredible efforts are being made to increase the applications of these cells to expand the number of cells available. This technology may enable a small sample to treat a larger person. Other efforts are directed at applying the technology to many other diseases such as Heart Disease, Stroke, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS and Multiple Sclerosis.
Cord blood stem cells are uniquely adaptable. These relatively uncommitted cells have been found to be more forgiving than bone marrow, requiring less than a perfect match to the recipient. This adaptability extends the application of these cells to consider their use by other family members. Mom, Dad and siblings can often use these cells without risk of rejection.
Many transplants have been applied to family members. A recent success was the transplant of cord blood stored at Cells for Life to a five-year-old boy using a sample from his younger brother. He has fully recovered from Leukemia and is cancer free. Patrizia Durante received cord blood from her daughter in 2001 following aggressive chemotherapy for Leukemia. Both Patrizia and her daughter Victoria Angel are well and enjoying life five years later.
Such success with applications to family members has raised the potential of these cells to meet the needs for a vast population of those awaiting bone marrow transplants. This concept inspired the staff at Cells for Life to start the Victoria Angel Registry of Hope to share the science of stem cells. Their public division accepts donations of umbilical cord blood, processes and stores the cord blood and makes the samples available to recipients in need at no cost (www.cellsforlife.com to learn more about the registry).
The choice to store for exclusive family use or private storage costs less than $1000 for the collection, processing, testing and first year of storage. The yearly storage cost is $115.00 every year thereafter. The technology is so new that most literature suggests the storage term is 15 years. Technology in similar applications suggests there is no reason not to consider storing this potential lifeline for a lifetime.
Options are available for reduced fees and medical need storage in order not to preclude expectant parents from storing strictly on a financial basis.
The secret is out that medicine has delivered a gift: the option to treat disease with our own resources. The valuable resource given to us with the birth of a child is hard to quantify when we can't foresee the future. The decision to store cord blood may someday give another person a second chance at life. It is simply an opportunity. One day, the option to collect and store may be as simple as signing your donor card. It's hopeful in time that support for public banking will increase and the statistics will rise dramatically. Until then, every time an umbilical cord is preserved, hope, chance and possibilities are options.