Giving your patients every advantage.

This is an exciting, overwhelming time for the expectant parent 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 stem cells 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 and used as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation.
  • Umbilical cord tissue is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which are increasingly being utilized in regenerative medicine research.[1][2]
  • 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.

Why should my patients preserve their newborn’s umbilical cord blood stem cells?
Transplant physicians 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 (GVHD) following a transplant. Therefore, parents should seriously consider preserving umbilical cord blood stem cells for their families first. Also, since the patient owns the preserved umbilical cord blood specimen, there is no charge for retrieval, if needed. Umbilical cord blood stem cells preserved at Cryo-Cell International, Inc., are immediately available if needed. And, parents using a stored specimen reserved for their family would not deplete the public banks' inventory—which means the 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 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 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 over 5 million of the blood derived stem cells that resulted in a successful 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 (GVHD).

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.

In order to preserve more types and quantity of umbilical cord stem cells and to maximize possible future health options, Cryo-Cell’s umbilical cord tissue service provides expectant families with the opportunity to cryogenically store their newborn’s umbilical cord tissue cells contained within substantially intact cord tissue. Should umbilical cord tissue cells be considered for potential utilization in a future therapeutic application, further laboratory processing may be necessary. Regarding umbilical cord tissue, all private blood banks’ activities for New York State residents are limited to collection, processing, and long-term storage of umbilical cord tissue stem cells. The possession of a New York State license for such collection, processing and long-term storage does not indicate approval or endorsement of possible future uses or future suitability of these cells.