Why Should We Increase Our Funding For Cord Blood Banks?

There was a recent article in the MSNBC news about why more cord blood banking in the US can benefit our community.

Dr. John Wagner from the University of Minnesota Cancer Center "can screen 6 million people worldwide in search of a perfect bone marrow match for one of his leukemia patients. Yet, finding that match is often impossible."

He says:

“Sixty percent, if not more, can’t go on because they can’t find a donor”

So why cord blood?

What is it about cord blood that makes it so special? The article explains…

"The federal government is moving aggressively to create the first national banking system for umbilical cord blood, which contains the same potentially lifesaving stem cells as bone marrow — but with a distinct advantage.

They don’t require that the donor and recipient share the same group of genes essential to getting a transplant to take. As a result, they are less likely to be rejected by the recipient.

“We can find donors for everyone. When I say everyone, upward of 90 percent,” Wagner said."

And this is where the Health Resources and Services Administration is coming in to try to help improve our rates of cord blood donation. They are planning to award about $14 million to public cord blood banks around the country.

And the goal?

To increase the supply of cord blood donations from 50,000 to 150,000.

To put this into perspective, the article stated that "the New York Blood Center is…perhaps the largest collection of cord blood units in the world — about 35,000 units. Most of the nearly two dozen public banks rely on private donations to operate."

In terms of cost, it was estimated that processing one unit of cord blood costs between $1000 to $2000 depending on the method of storage and the location of the cord blood bank.

And it was expected that the funding will not pay for the entire cost but "the subsidy should be enough to substantially expand the cord blood supply"

So it looks as if the work of cord blood banks which rely mostly on private donations to operate, will get a helping hand.

News reference:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15285941/