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Public Cord Blood Banking Works For Everyone
Each year, thousands of patients are diagnosed with a disease that might have to be treated
with a hematopoietic or blood stem cell transplant. Traditionally, these stem cells have
come from bone marrow donation, from either a relative or from an unrelated volunteer
donor. Most patients, however, have no
relative that matches their HLA tissue type. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 of patients cannot find a donor that is a sufficiently close match among the millions of volunteer donors listed with registries around the world. Other patients don't
have enough time to find an unrelated bone marrow donor due to the rapid progression of their disease. Cord blood is now another option.
In October 2002, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) published an extensive report on the government-funded National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), a registry of people throughout the U.S. who are willing to donate their bone marrow if it is a match for anyone who may need it. The report addressed concerns regarding "...the extent to which the Registry provides equality of opportunity for patients of all racial and ethnic groups to find compatible (matched) unrelated donors, the extent to which it is utilized by those in need of stem cell transplantation, and the effectiveness of the management of the donor centers." The complete report may be viewed in the link below.
2002 GAO Report: Possible Underutilization of National Bone Marrow Donor Registry (PDF)
To view PDFs, you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Public cord blood banking can ensure that nearly everyone
who needs a stem cell transplant can get one and get it quickly. Currently, with more than 33,000 cord blood
donations, the New York Blood Center's National Cord Blood Program can find a cord blood graft for approximately
85 percent of patients who request a search. The NCBP now collects cord blood in six
affiliated hospitals: four in the New York metropolitan area, one in Fairfax County, Virginia and one in Cleveland,
Ohio [See About Us and Collection Sites] and will add one or two more over the coming year. We have a goal to reach 60,000-75,000 cord blood units over the next four years.
If most patients can find a cord blood unit already, why do we need so many more units?
At present, some patients must still
make do with a cord blood unit that is not optimal, either because of
a low cell dose and/or a low number of HLA matches. Much larger
inventories are needed so that all patients, including ethnic minority patients, can find a cord blood unit that will be optimal for them and give them the best chance to survive and regain their health. This is why we are expanding our own Program and why we have worked to encourage federal funding to help all qualified public cord blood banks in the U.S. build a large national inventory of cord blood units. Federal
funding, passed into law in December, 2005 and soon to be available, will help build a national inventory
totaling 150,000 high quality, ethnically diverse cord blood units. We estimate that this is the number needed to
ensure that 80-90% of patients will have access to a cord blood unit with a good cell dose
and a 5/6 HLA match or better.
[See NYBC's earlier position on why this legislation is critical for patients].
[See NYBC's current statement regarding the importance of the passage of this legislation]
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