5 replies to this topic

[Matt]

Hi Everyone.

I tried a search on this forum but couldn't find any posts on this topic. Hopefully, you will be able to shed some light on it for me. I am 29 years old and was diagnosed with PH+ CML in 2009. I've responded well to Gleevec (600mg/day) with very few side effects. My wife and I are expecting our first baby in March, and she and my parents are very much in favor of collecting and banking the cord blood during the delivery. It could be helpful if I ever need a BMT, and who knows what other breakthroughs may arise in the future. We just want to make a good decision, so here are some of our questions: Which company should we use to bank the cord blood? How does the process work? How much does it cost? Can you "multiply" the blood in case I need a lot of it? Does the cord blood have a "type"? What's so great about cord blood?

So that this doesn't seem entirely selfish of me, we would also like to have the cord blood available for our son in the event that he should ever need it. We'd appreciate any help that you could give. Although I don't post very often, I read this message board regularly. Thanks for being a life-changing resource.

-Matt

[Trey]

The cord blood would be most useful to the child born at the time of collection if ever needed, and less so to you and other family members.  Cord blood does not need to match the recipient, since it has not yet formed Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLAs) which are the cause of rejection.  So it is generally adaptable to almost anyone.  Secondly, for an adult transplant, two units of cord blood are required, so one would necessarily need to come from another donor.  The cord blood cannot be expanded by growth using current technology, but who knows about the future.  Cord blood transplants are not as successful as well-matched related or unrelated donors due to lower engraftment rates (failure to create a new blood system).  Regarding cost, etc, you would need to comparison shop companies.  The collection process is relatively simple, but the storage is the big cost.  I am not trying to dissuade you, just answering some of your questions.  It is a reasonable thing to consider.

[tranier]

Congratulations!  My 21 year old son is day +31 of unrelated bone marrow transplant for blast crisis CML.  If he did not have match, cord blood would have been next choice.  As Trey states at this time, if needed, cord blood not as successful as bmt  or stem cell transplant, however many have found success and you could find them in the transplant group here.  As Trey mentioned, 2 cord bloods are used for adult transplants. They do have a blood type, but two dif. Blood types can be used and one of the cord blood types eventually dominates!  Your insurance may actually cover the cost of storage since you do have cml dx ...contact the hospital social worker...At any rate I think it is a great idea...I teach elementary and several Dif children have benefited from their stored cord blood...not leukemia but other disease..so yes, both you, your child or a stranger could benefit..Again congrats to you and your wife!!!!

[mamawarrior]

My son had a double umbilical cord stem cell transplant for relapsed aml in 2006 after there were no sibling matches and his only perfect match in the registry became unavailable. He was 20 years old. His cords were both from baby girls, from two different cord banks, one in calif. and one in NC. Both cords were 4 out of 6 HLA match with my son and with each other. One was A+ blood type, and the other was O+. One had been collected and stored since 2003, the other was 2006.

The advantage to cord blood is that you don't have to be a perfect HLA match, they are more readily available and accessible if time is of essence, and in general cord blood recipients have less GVHD.

The disadvantage is as trey said, the risk of failure to engraft is higher, the engraftment process and cellular regeneration generally takes longer leaving the patient at an increased risk for infection and often times transfusion dependant longer. Also cord blood stem cells lack adoptive immunity properties putting them potentially at increased risk for fungal and viral infections.

And while less gvhd can be an advantage, lack of gvhd can be a disadvantage as well, if there is no gvl effect.

Sorry for barging in on the cml board.

[cousineg]

See this link        Stem cells from umbilical cord blood

[Matt]

It sounds like it wouldn't be a bad idea to bank the cord blood stem cells. Although I may never use them, they could certainly be helpful to our son. And who knows what the future may hold. It's such a rare opportunity that I think we'll go ahead with the it...just in case. Thanks to all of you for the information!