Top 10 reasons why you should consider banking umbilical cord blood

1. 1 in 217 individuals¹ may need a hematopoietic stem cell (HSCs) transplant by the age of 70.
2. 60% higher chance² of match versus bone marrow in a family.
3. Research showed that patients have a lower chance of complications in transplants when they receive stem cells from a relative³.
4. Some of the most common cancers, such as leukaemia and lymphoma, are treatable with stem cell transplant. In the Philippines, leukaemia is one of the top 10 cancers for both men and women; and for men, lymphoma is also in the top 8. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) is the most common type of leukaemia in children, with 79% of childhood ALL occurring between the ages 1-9 years⁴.
5. A guaranteed match for autologous transplants (where the donor and recipient are the same individual).
6. A readily available supply of stored hematopoietic stem cells -- this is a better option than having to do a national or international search which is costly and time-consuming given an already time critical situation.
7. Lower risk of Graft vs. Host Disease (GvHD) for allogeneic transplants, a situation where the transplanted tissue attacks the patient’s own tissue.
8. Umbilical cord blood stem cells are younger and are more tolerant to tissue mismatches, compared to other types of stem cells, e.g. bone marrow.
9. Ease of collection, which is pain-free and risk-free to both mother and child.
10. It is once-in-a-lifetime chance to collect cord blood – a readily available source of HSCs when needed in the future.

Sources:
¹Nietfeld JJ, Pasquini MC, Logan BR, et. al. 2008 Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. 14:316-322.
² Beatty PG, Boucher KM, Mori M, et. al. 2000. Human Immunology. 61, 834-840.
³ Wagner JE, Steinbuch M, Kernan NA, et. al. 1995. The Lancet.346:214-219 Kurtzberg J, Laughin M, Graham ML, et. al. 1996. New England Journal of Medicine. 335:157-66.
⁴Laudico A.V. et al., 2015. 2015 Philippine Cancer Facts and Estimates. Philippine Cancer Society, Inc.