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UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD BANKING: Insurance Against Future Diseases?
USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), March, 2000 by Holly Wagner
By the time the study was published in November, 1998, 51 (14%) of the patients with leukemia had relapsed, as did two of the 13 patients with lymphoma. Of the 218 patients who died, GVHD was cited as the cause of death in 11%, while most (47%) died from infection.
The researchers concluded that "placental-blood transplants regularly engraft, cause GVHD at a relatively low rate, and produce survival rates similar to those with transplantation of bone marrow from unrelated donors." The majority of patients (137) were between six and 11 years old. Most patients in the study weighed from 44 to 85 pounds.
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"The chances of graft failure increase as a person weighs more," cautions Lasky, whose lab is working on expanding the amount of stem cells in a sample. In fact, one of the main disadvantages to using cord blood stem cells in transplants is the finite amount of material in each unit. "Once harvested, there's no cord to go back to for more. If stem cell expansion becomes successful, then the restriction of sample size may not apply."
This kind of research, although experimental, gives private cord blood banks even more reason to claim that not banking cord blood amounts to throwing away a valuable resource that could be used by that child later in life. Conscientious parents are faced with determining the likelihood their offspring or family will ever need a stored sample, and physicians are encouraged to embrace a new technique that the CBR calls "integral to a well-rounded obstetrical and prenatal program."
The number of storage facilities cropping up worldwide--from India to Australia, Europe to Canada--echoes the promise of umbilical cord blood in treating various diseases. At least a dozen public and private cord blood banks are in business in the U.S. According to Long, the Red Cross has plans to establish five or six more cord blood banks. Even with the proliferation of storage facilities and the promise that cord blood stem cells may be the next best thing in curing certain diseases, patients and doctors should realize that using these cells is still experimental.
Yet, with all the promise of healing and money-making surrounding cord blood, it seems logical that some entity would step in to regulate the tissue. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates other human tissues, such as red blood cells, but doesn't have much of a role in overseeing cord blood banking. Why is this so?
"That's the $64,000 question," indicates Lorrie Harrison of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. "At this point, there is little data to support whether or not stem cells will work down the road; if they're being properly processed; if there will really be a need for them; if people are just throwing their money away. Those are questions we can't answer right now because we just don't have scientific data."
The Ross Cord Blood Bank was the first American Red Cross chapter to earn FDA permission to proceed with collecting, processing, and storing stem cells. In November, 1998, it collected its first donor stem cell sample from Colin Ohr, born Nov. 3. His mother, Misty, works as a bone marrow transplant nurse for The Ohio State University Hospitals. "Bone marrow transplantation is near and dear to my heart," she said. "I've seen patients who couldn't find a donor. Cord blood is such a precious resource. I can't imagine just throwing it into a trash can."
