What are the treatment uses
for cord blood?

Why use cord blood?

As a parent, the care of your children is of the utmost importance and one method that is being developed to aid you towards this end is blood cord banking; there are a growing number of treatment uses for cord blood that you should know about in order to make an informed decision. Because the storage and transplanting of blood stem cells from umbilical blood are still relatively new techniques the list of treatment uses for cord blood is still growing but there is already a respectable number of diseases that can be cured through the use of cord blood.

Cord blood is an unused source of stem cells that are identically matched to your baby and very closely matched to the rest of your immediate family. While bone marrow transplants perform a similar task approximately 50% of people who require these transplants are left without a donor and don't receive the treatment they require. However, through the storage of cord blood this problem could soon become a thing of the past. Stem cells are an incredible part of the human make up that can essentially transform into other vital cells found within your body. They can be used to treat heart conditions, strokes and some forms of cancer.

About stem cell research.

Stem cells research studies on bone cells have shown that it is not only diseases related to the blood that can be treated with stem cells because they can also be used to regenerate the nervous system. The pros of stem cells research become obvious when you look at the list of diseases that can currently be treated through transplant and even more so when you consult the list of diseases for which ongoing research is being carried out. There have been over 3,500 successful transplants using cord blood since the first transplant in 1988.

Treatment uses for cord blood - Leukemia.

Many different types of acute and chronic leukemia can be treated through bone marrow or cord blood transplants. Cord blood transplants are the preferable method because they provide the patient with a supply of blood stem cells that exactly match their own. Many patients waiting for a bone marrow transplant fail to receive the transplant because of a lack of potential donors.

Other current treatment uses for cord blood.

As well as leukemia, the treatment of refractive and other forms of anemia has a very good success rate when cord blood is transplanted into patients. The list of current treatments also includes lymphomas, osteoporosis, various metabolic disorders, sickle cell disease and inherited immune system disorders. The list goes on and on providing many reasons why parents should consider the use of cord blood banking.

The likelihood of needing your umbilical cord blood.

The chances of any child requiring their cord blood before they reach adulthood is approximately 10,000 to 1 but the chances greatly increase that a person will need the stem cells found in their umbilical cord blood before they reach 75. There is a 400 to 1 chance that you will require your cord blood before you reach this age and even though this may not sound a large number you have to consider that the list of clinical trials and experimental treatments is as long if not longer than the list of current treatments. Research is ongoing into the potential uses so all of these lists will undoubtedly increase in size and as they do the likelihood that a person will require their cord blood will also increase.

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