- "Cord blood" refers to a small amount (up to 180 mL) of blood from a newborn baby that is harvested from the umbilical cord, and which contains potentially valuable stem cells that have been used to treat and cure serious diseases in both children and adults. As technology and medicine have begun to discover more applications for these stem cells, more families are choosing to bank their children's cord blood in private or public cord blood banks. Unlike bone marrow, harvesting cord blood takes no special procedure to collect other than clamping the umbilical cord in a particular way, and the collection process causes no additional pain to the mother or baby. In most cases, the cord blood that is harvested would otherwise be discarded along with the umbilical cord.
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The ease of collecting cord blood is one reason more parents are choosing to store their child's cord blood in private banks. However, despite many successful transplants and promise of more uses for cord blood in the future, private cord blood banks have traditionally overstated the potential usefulness of banking your own child's cord blood cells. There is a growing consensus that in most cases, when there is no immediate need within the family, the odds the privately banked cord blood will ever be used is between one in 1,000 and one in 200,000.
Private cord blood banking costs vary by facility, but run between $600 and $1,800 for the first year, with the average at about $1,500. This service is sold by banks as a kind of insurance, but before you choose private cord blood banking for your family, it is important to know the limitations of cord blood that is privately banked. - One of the big issues with using a person's own cord blood to treat many conditions is that the cells in the cord blood can carry the same disease. This means that even disorders frequently treated using cord blood transplants cannot be treated with a transplant of your own cord blood. This can even include leukemia, as the cord blood cells can already carry leukemia's genetic coding.
- A second major limitation of cord blood in general is that the quantity of stem cells in a typical umbilical cord is not thought to be enough to do a cord blood transplant for an adult or anyone over 100 lbs. However, this is one area where the technology is rapidly changing the situation, and the National Cord Blood Program states that a few adults have been treated successfully with cord blood from unrelated donors. In some cases, cord blood from two different donors is given to one patient in order to provide enough stem cells; in other cases, stem cells from cord blood are expanded ex vivo ("outside of the body," i.e. in a lab) to create enough cells to successfully treat an adult.
- A third consideration is that the stem cells in cord blood are primitive, and the treatment can take more time to be successful when compared to bone marrow transplants. This delay exposes the patient to greater risk of infection and serious illness while the transplant takes effect. However, because cord blood stem cells are primitive, the match required for a cord blood transplant does not have to be perfect. Cord blood stem cells are adaptable, and there is a great deal of potential that will eventually be realized.
- Where private cord blood banking makes the most sense is for families where one parent or sibling has a disorder that requires a cord blood transplant, especially where a suitable match cannot be found in public cord blood banks. This is a decision to be made in coordination with your doctors to ensure that the cord blood you are paying to bank has a good chance of being used. If banking your child's cord blood privately is not an option for your family, remember that there are many public cord blood banks throughout the country, and a treatment derived from cord blood is still possible.
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If you want your child's cord blood to save a life or cure a serious disease, but don't want to pay for something your family may never need, you have the option of donating your child's cord blood to a public cord blood bank. The more donors contribute cord blood, the more likely it is that when someone in your family needs stem cells, you will find a match through the National Cord Blood Program or other public cord blood banks. Donors of all races are needed, and if you are expecting a child, this program may be right for you and your family. The cord blood your family donates will further the research and development of cord blood technology and could end up saving at least one life.
Unfortunately, because of limited funding, you may have to do a bit of legwork to find a public bank that will take your donation. It costs around $1,000 to process a cord blood donation for storage, and whether donations are accepted, and when, may depend on the research being done and the current level of financial support a given bank has (see Resources).
