Cord Blood

Although cord blood has only recently received widespread media attention, the first successful cord blood transplant took place in France in 1988, for a child with Fanconi’s Anemia, a rare congenital anemia. In 1991, a transplant was performed on a child with chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. Both transplants were successful, opening the door to cord blood transplantations for situations in which traditional bone marrow had been routinely used. Since then, approximately two-thirds of the cord blood transplants performed have been for malignant conditions, while the remainder have been done for a variety of genetic blood disorders. Overall, cord blood transplants offer a high rate of success, which continues to grow as the number of transplants rises.

Cord blood banking is simple, safe and secure. A life-giving opportunity that happens only at the time of a birth, it offers a powerful medical resource in fighting devastating chronic and acute diseases. Think of it as an investment in your family's future.

Stem cells are the “mother cells,” which give rise to all of the cells in the human body. Stem cells are at the forefront of one of the most fascinating and revolutionary areas of biology today. Scientists are rapidly discovering many revolutionary uses for stem cells, because they have the unique capability to either multiply or develop into other cell types. There are different types of stem cells. A “hematopoietic” stem cell is the primary type collected from the umbilical cord blood. Cord blood stem cells can multiply and develop into the major components of bone marrow, blood, and the immune system.

Ongoing stem cell research is spawning ever-increasing knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell, and most importantly, how healthy cells can replace damaged cells. This latter field is often referred to as regenerative or reparative medicine.

Stem cells hold the potential of allowing researchers to grow and rejuvenate specific cells or tissues, which may ultimately be used to treat heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's and many other diseases.

By choosing to preserve your baby's cord blood with NECBB, you will preserve your family's chance to potentially use it as a part of a treatment therapy for over 80 diseases, including various cancers, genetic diseases, blood disorders and immune system deficiencies.

• Potential to save your baby’s or another family member’s life.
• A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: Immediately after birth.
• The cord blood collection process is simple, painless and harmless to the baby and mother.
• 30%-70% of people who need bone marrow transplants cannot find a match. Banking your baby’s stem cells improves the odds of having a proper match for your baby or another family member. Finding a proper match is especially problematic for African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and people of mixed ethnicity.
• Especially beneficial if a family member has a condition that can be treated with a stem cell transplant, such as sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, aplastic anemia, leukemia, metabolic storage disorders and certain genetic immunodeficiencies.
• Medical advances are allowing stem cells to treat even more diseases and be used in more transplant cases than current medical practices.
• Cord blood is easily collected through a process that poses no risk to you or your baby. Using a family member’s stored stem cells offers patients in need a higher probability of finding an exact or acceptable match for their transplantation needs. The probability that the stem cells will be an exact match is 1/1 for the child from whom the stem cells were collected, 1/2 for the mother and the father of this child and 1/4 for a sibling of the child whose stem cells were saved.

Likelihood of an exact match with a family member:

• Match for Donor/Child = 100%
• Match for Parent = 50%
• Match for Sibling = 25%

Likelihood of an exact match with a family member:

• 1 in 400 for a Donor/Child (Blood, October 2004)
• 1 in 1,400 for a Family Member (Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, 1997)
• 1 in 7 North Americans prior to age 70 will require treatment for cardiac repair (i.e., Myocardial Infarction or Congestive Heart Failure) (Nietfeld & Verter, 2004)
• Over 6,000 cord blood stem cell transplants have been reported worldwide
• More than 400-500 new patients receive treatment annually
• In addition, stem cells from cord blood are better than stem cells from bone marrow because they are less prone to “graft vs. host disease” (GVHD – an immune system attack by donor cells against the recipient) and other complications relating to the recipient body rejecting foreign cells. Most importantly, banked cord blood is available when you and your family need it most, allowing treatment to begin almost immediately, without time spent searching for a match.

The Embryonic Stem Cell Controversy
Most controversy concerns the use of stem cells from embryos and fetuses (not to be confused with cord blood stem cells). Congress has banned the use of federal funds for any research that results in the destruction of human embryos, including research that would improve the accuracy of prenatal diagnosis of inherited disorders.

Current research projects have obtained stem cells from tissue, which has been removed during terminated pregnancies, or from embryos produced by in-vitro fertilization clinics. Once isolated, the cells can be grown up in the laboratory and stored for future use. As science and technology continue to advance, so do ethical viewpoints surrounding these developments. It is important to educate and explore the issues, scientifically and ethically.

Cord Blood: The Controversy-Free Source of Stem Cells
Umbilical cord blood stem cells are controversy-free and offer advantages over other types of stem cells. While your baby’s own stem cells are a perfect match (100%), there is a good probability of a match for siblings, parents and or grandparents. While stem cells have been in the news more and more these days, few understand that there are different types of stem cells:

• Adult Stem Cells: Adult stem cells are found in bone marrow (the vehicle carrying these stem cells) and require invasive surgery to acquire. Also, finding a matching donor for a bone marrow transplant via a public bank can be difficult and sometimes impossible.
• Embryonic Stem Cells: Derived from an embryo (sperm meets the egg) are highly controversial and often in the news and at the heart of many moral and ethical debates.
• Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells: Umbilical cord blood offers a perfectly natural, controversy-free method of acquiring stem cells. (The Vatican approves of cord blood banking.) Cord blood stem cells offer many advantages over other stem cells. They are collected in a risk-free, five-minute procedure at the time of birth that is painless for both mother and baby. Also, stem cells from cord blood are better than stem cells from bone marrow because they are less prone to “graft vs. host disease” (GVHD – an immune system attack by donor cells against the recipient) and other complications relating to the recipient body rejecting foreign cells. Most importantly, banked cord blood is available when you and your family need it most, allowing treatment to begin almost immediately, without time spent searching for a match. Plus, cord blood stem cells are a perfect match for the baby and can potentially be used to treat other family members.

There are a wide range of diseases that are treatable with cord blood, including stem cell disorders, acute and chronic forms of leukemia, myeloproliferative disorders and many more. It’s important to note that, in addition to the host of conditions that can now be treated, it’s the potential of cord blood that holds the most excitement, as research continues to uncover new possibilities. The efficacy of treating disease with cord blood stem cells is real. Beyond their potential to grow and rejuvenate specific cells or tissues, which can ultimately be used to treat a host of diseases, cord blood stem cells are currently being used to treat more than 80 acute and chronic diseases today.

• Stem Cell Disorders
• Aplastic Anemia (Severe)
• Fanconi Anemia
• Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH)
• Acute Leukemias
• Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)
• Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML)
• Acute Biphenotypic Leukemia
• Acute Undifferentiated Leukemia
• Chronic Leukemias
• Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML)
• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)
• Juvenile Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (JCML)
• Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML)
• Myeloproliferative Disorders
• Acute Myelofibrosis
• Agnogenic Myeloid Metaplasia (myelofibrosis)
• Polycythemia Vera
• Essential Thrombocythemia
• Myelodysplastic Syndromes
• Refractory Anemia (RA)
• Refractory Anemia with Ringed Sideroblasts (RARS)
• Refractory Anemia with Excess Blasts (RAEB)
• Refractory Anemia with Excess Blasts in Transformation (RAEB-T)
• Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML)
• Lymphoproliferative Disorders
• Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
• Hodgkin’s Disease
• Prolymphocytic Leukemia
• Inherited Erythrocyte Abnormalities
• Beta Thalassemia Major
• Pure Red Cell Aplasia
• Sickle Cell Disease
• Cartilage-Hair Hypoplasia
• Glanzmann Thrombasthenia
• Osteopetrosis
• Other Malignancies
• Breast Cancer
• Ewing Sarcoma
• Neuroblastoma
• Renal Cell Carcinoma
• Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia
• Other Inherited Disorders
• Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome
• Liposomal Storage Diseases
• Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS)
• Hurler Syndrome (MPS-IH)
• Scheie Syndrome (MPS-IS)
• Hunter’s Syndrome (MPS-II)
• Sanfilippo Syndrome (MPS-III)
• Morquio Syndrome (MPS-IV)
• Maroteaux-Lamy Syndrome (MPS-VI)
• Sly Syndrome, Beta-Glucuronidase Deficiency (MPS-VII)
• Adrenoleukodystrophy
• Mucolipidosis II (I-cell Disease)
• Krabbe Disease
• Gaucher’s Disease
• Niemann-Pick Disease
• Wolman Disease
• Metachromatic Leukodystrophy
• Histiocytic Disorders
• Familial Erythrophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis
• Histiocytosis-X
• Hemophagocytosis
• Phagocyte Disorders
• Chediak-Higashi Syndrome
• Chronic Granulomatous Disease
• Neutrophil Actin Deficiency
• Reticular Dysgenesis
• Congenital Immune System Disorders
• Ataxia-Telangiectasia
• Kostmann Syndrome
• Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency
• DiGeorge Syndrome
• Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome
• Omenn’s Syndrome
• Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID)
• SCID with Adenosine Deaminase Deficiency
• Absence of T & B Cells SCID
• Absence of T Cells, Normal B Cell SCID
• Common Variable Immunodeficiency
• Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome
• X-Linked Lymphoproliferative Disorder
• Inherited Platelet Abnormalities
• Amegakaryocytosis / Congenital Thrombocytopenia
• Plasma Cell Disorders
• Multiple Myeloma
• Plasma Cell Leukemia

Stem cells have already proven their viability in treating a wide range of chronic and acute diseases. In addition to those life-saving capabilities, research is already uncovering a host of potential stem cell applications in the treatment of:

• Heart Disease: the leading cause of death in America today
• Diabetes: Affects an estimated 18.2 million Americans, and the number rises each year
• Parkinson's Disease: affects as many as one million Americans
• Stroke: 700,000 Americans suffer from stroke each year
• Alzheimer's Disease: Affects 1 in 10 over 65 and 5 in 10 over age 85
• Spinal Cord Injury: Approximately 250,000 to 400,000 are currently living with spinal cord injuries, and 11,000 new injuries occur each year.
• ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease): a degenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord - 30,000 are living with this disease today
• Osteoporosis: opportunities exist to someday treat people who suffer from this disease through bone regeneration
• Liver Disease: 25 million Americans live with this disease, affecting the largest organ in the body.
• Muscular Dystrophy: these genetic diseases causing progressive weakness and degeneration of the skeletal muscles, affect 20,000 - 50,000 annually
• Multiple Sclerosis: a chronic unpredictable disease of the central nervous system, affecting 400,000 Americans

Some of the most frequently asked questions we hear from our families have to do with stem cell expansion, or “amplification” as some are calling the process. There are some answers to the status of stem cell expansion in general, and how this subject relates to your stored cord blood stem cells here at NECBB on our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

Cord blood collection is simple and poses no risk to you or your baby. Immediately after your baby’s delivery, the umbilical cord is clamped and the baby is separated from the cord. At this point, the needle attached to the collection bag is inserted into the vein in the umbilical cord. The umbilical cord blood, drawn by gravity, then flows into the collection bag. The bag comes equipped with an anti-coagulant to keep the blood from clotting before it reaches our laboratory.

Unlike traditional bone marrow collection, which usually requires general anesthesia and recovery, the process of collecting cord blood is non-invasive, painless and generally takes just three to five minutes to complete. NECBB will supply you with a cord blood collection kit prior to your baby’s delivery date. You simply bring the kit to the hospital for the physician, nurse or midwife to collect the cord blood after you deliver.