Transplant Society
Sets Cord Blood Banking Guidelines

The American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT), a professional society of transplanters in North America, has just released a report on the collection and storage of cord blood for personal use. Published in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (14:356-263, 2008), the report recommends banking cord blood for personal use only in limited circumstances.

According to the report, the probability of using one’s own cord blood at some future date is very small. Although difficult to quantify, estimates put it as low as 0.04% to 0.0005% in the first 20 years of life. In other words, there is as little as a 1-in-2,500 to 1-in-200,000 chance that a baby whose cord blood is stored will be able to use it later.

Storing cord blood for use by a family member is recommended when there is a sibling with a disease that can be treated successfully with a cord blood transplant. Storing cord blood for possible use by the baby’s parent is only recommended if both parents share similar genetic markers on their cells (HLA antigens).

The low probability of a child being able to use his or her own cord blood unit for transplant later relates to a number of factors, says Karen Ballen MD, the study’s lead author. Many diseases, for which transplant is a possible treatment, require cells from a donor, not the patient’s own cells. If an autologous transplant (a transplant using the patient’s own cells) is an option, cells can usually be collected from the patient at that time.

“There’s also the risk that the abnormal cells that cause the disease later in life are also present in the cord blood unit,” says Ballen.

The report recommends that expectant parents consider banking their cord blood for public use, rather than private use, except in those instances indicated above.

The use of cord blood stored in public banks is likely to increase in future years, notes the report. Expanded use of cord blood for personal or family use may also occur. However, for the foreseeable future, the likely use of privately stored cord blood is exceedingly small, and thus public banking of cord blood is encouraged. The authors urge that the recommendations be reviewed periodically as new data on the use of cord blood banking – whether for public or private use – emerges.

“I wish all parents, as they deliver their babies, would consider donating their cord blood to a public cord blood bank,” says Ruben Rucoba, a pediatrician in the Chicago area and father of Rose, who underwent a cord blood transplant in 1997. “I encourage it professionally among my patients’ parents and also among my friends. My wife and I are forever indebted to the woman who gave up her baby’s cord blood to save our child’s life. I just think of all the lives that could be saved if everyone were hooked into a national cord blood program.”

Someone you should know: Willie Cole

Editor: Susan K. Stewart

Medical Advisors:
Philip McCarthy, MD
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, NY

To subscribe, contact:
BMT InfoNet
2310 Skokie Valley Rd.,Suite 104
Highland Park, IL 60035
888-597-7674 (toll free)
847-433-3313
847-433-4599 (fax)