According to a doctor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, more lives will be saved if more families decide to save their newborn’s cord blood.
Although stem cells have been saved from cord blood for roughly the past decade, leaps in the medical field recently have made it possible for donation to be much easier and efficient.
Dr. Joseph McGuirk says taking stem cells from cord blood is a life-saving strategy.
"These two young ladies wouldn't be here talking to us today in this world, living their wonderful lives, without these transplants. So it's absolutely miraculous,” said McGuirk, referring to two of his patients who were with him at the Midwest Conference on Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Friday in Overland Park.
McGuirk leads the blood cancer and bone marrow transplant programs at KU Medical Center.
How are these stem cells more humane?
McGuirk said harvesting stem cells through cord blood is safe and not to be confused with the much controversial embryonic stem cells from unborn babies.
"There's no controversy in the world community about the type of stem cell transplants we do. We use adult derived stem cells that's not harmful to the donor. And we use cord-blood derived stem cells that's just a waste product, that doesn't harm the baby that was born or the mom,” he said.
How does the process work?
“The placenta and the cord, once that cord's cut, the baby goes off to nursery, mom goes off to her room, the team throws the placenta and the cord blood into the waste basket. Instead of letting it go to waste, we grab that thing, and milk all the cells out of it that can be life-saving for patients,” said McGuirk.
Who can it save?
According to researchers, cord blood can treat more than 80 diseases, including leukemia.
"If it wasn't for cord blood I wouldn't be standing here today,” said Rebecca Burns, originally from Lee’s Summit.
Burns’ leukemia relapsed two years ago. After several more rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, doctors told her that a cord blood transplant would be her one, last ‘hail Mary.’
The transplant worked and Burns is now in full remission.
"None of my siblings matched me. No one in the bone marrow registry matched me. So my only option was a cord blood transplant,” she said. “"This child now is twelve years old. I'll never know who he is but he saved my life."
How is cord blood donated/stored?
Parents must make the decision to donate or store the cord blood before the child birth.
Public donation is at no cost to the family. If parents would like to privately store their baby’s stem cells for future use, it can cost several thousands of dollars.
The nearest private bank is located in Springfield, Missouri at Core 23 Bio Bank. The initial cost for the first year is $2,300. Each year after that the cost is $175 per year.
The only Kansas City area hospital to confirm with 41 Action News in regards to having a cord blood bank was St. Luke’s Hospital.
How are patients connected with a potential match?
If they don’t have their own stem cells stored at a private bank and they don’t have a match within their family, hospitals can turn to National Cord Bank Registries.
According to KU Hospital, the odds of having matched donor on the world-wide registry is 70 percent for Caucasians. However, those odds dip to single digits up to 30 percent for minorities.
Another way for stem cell donation
McGuirk also highlighted an alternative type of stem cell therapy at Friday’s conference.
He said that because of improvements in medicine, it’s now more common to treat cancers like Leukemia with a stem cell transplant through a mismatched family donation. In other words, even if a family member isn’t a perfect match, they still may be able to donate stem cells through their own bone marrow successfully.
Haley Daniels successfully completed a mismatched stem cell donation through her brother’s bone marrow at KU just two years ago after battling a relapse of her acute Leukemia.
"Once you get through it, you're just back to your regular life, which is what you want anyway, so it's awesome,” she said at the conference on Friday.
Why donate?
Researchers report only 10 percent of potential life-saving cord blood is currently saved, even though it can currently treat more than 80 diseases.
"Rebecca and Haley, and many in the world community, are being saved today. Where a decade ago it wasn't possible,” said McGuirk.
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Josh Helmuth can be reached at josh.helmuth@kshb.com
