Are dual cord blood banks the answer to increasing stem cell demand?

Demand for stem cells from cord blood is greater than supply. In this week’s BMJ, two senior doctors, Professors Nicholas Fisk and Rifat Atun, analyse the UK’s growing cord blood banking industry and the potential impact of a new bank that provides blood for both personal and public use.

Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells that can be used in a way similar to bone marrow to treat diseases such as childhood leukaemia. In future, it might also be used to repair damaged tissues in a range of diseases such as strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure, and diabetes.

Cord blood banks generally fall into two groups. Public banks collect cord blood which has been altruistically donated at birth and the blood is available to everyone. The value of public banks is now well established, but currently only a handful of UK hospitals collect cord blood for the public bank and coverage is insufficient to meet demand.

In contrast, commercial (private) banks offer parents the chance to store their child’s cord blood as biological insurance, in case it is needed to treat some future disease in the child or close family member. Customers typically pay £1500 for a 20-25 year service, but the chances of the blood being used are very small and these banks have been opposed by numerous medical bodies.

Private banks also raise serious resource issues for the NHS and are at risk of corporate failure.

Virgin recently introduced the concept of dual public-private banking. Virgin Health Bank stores 20% of the sample for private use and 80% for public use and uses some of the proceeds to support stem cell research.

In this way, Virgin has addressed the impasse between parents’ desire to store their baby’s cord blood and the unmet need for public banks, say the authors. Nevertheless, Virgin’s service still has many of the core disadvantages of private banking.

To succeed, Virgin will need to get the support of midwives and obstetricians who collect the blood and advise prospective customers, they write. The logistics of collection must also be streamlined to minimise burden on staff.

The charitable intent and public provision may help overturn entrenched professional opposition to commercial banking, say the authors, but fears about risks of private sector involvement in cord blood banking remain high.

These need allaying through greater transparency, strict regulation of financial practices, and greater accountability to public sector bodies through an appropriate regulatory framework, they conclude.

Source: British Medical Journal

Related stories:

The blood-brain barrier: A misunderstood key to finding life-saving cures to brain disease
An international team of scientists that includes a Saint Louis University researcher suggest several strategies to propel research for treatments of brain diseases that include multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity and stroke in the January issue of the Lancet Neurology.
Research shows cord blood comparable to matched bone marrow
University of Minnesota researchers report that umbilical cord blood transplants may offer blood cancer patients better outcomes than bone marrow transplants, according to an analysis of outcome data performed at the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
MGH researchers report successful new laser treatment for vocal-cord cancer
An innovative laser treatment for early vocal-cord cancer, developed at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), successfully restores patients’ voices without radiotherapy or traditional surgery, which can permanently damage vocal quality. This new option for patients, which has now been used in more than 25 patients, was reported on May 1 at the annual meeting of the American Broncho-Esophagological Association, and the data will soon be published as a supplement to the Annals of Otology, Rhinology, & Laryngology.
Part I: Hunting for a miracle, grasping at a chance
(AP) -- It was only a chair, but it had become his purgatory. Each day that John Pou spent in the wheelchair, his spirit seemed to die a little more. It was a perpetual reminder of the calamity that had brought him and Marci, even the kids, to this place.
Blood pressure killing the world's workers while banks and drug firms stand idle
In a today’s issue of The Lancet, international health experts call for urgent action from international development banks and pharmaceutical companies to stem the epidemic of blood pressure-related diseases affecting developing countries worldwide.
Specialized white blood cells coordinate 'first responders' to viral infection
Just as fire engines arrive quickly at the scene to save people and property, the cells that fight viruses have to reach the site of an infection promptly to mount a protective response.
Delayed cord clamping
Should you clamp the umbilical cord within a minute of birth or wait two or three minutes?
Stem cell research leads to potential new therapy for rare blood disorder
A unique partnership between industry and academia has led to human clinical trials of a new drug for a rare class of blood diseases called myeloproliferative disorders (MPD), which are all driven by the same genetic mutation and can evolve into leukemia. In just one year, collaborative discoveries by stem cell researchers from the University of California, San Diego, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Mayo Clinic and a San Diego pharmaceutical company, TargeGen, moved from identification of the most promising drug candidate to clinical trials for a new drug to fight this degenerative blood disorder, which affects more than 100,000 Americans.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news