Excess Cord Blood For Leukemia Based Patients Research

Roseous.com - Excess Cord Blood For Leukemia Based Patients Research. Leukemia is a frightening specter. The good news, blood cancer that attacks these white blood cells can be cured by using stem cells or cord blood. Various studies have proven the efficacy of stem cells in curing leukemia, such as a recent study conducted by a university in the United States.

A study at the University of Colorado Cancer Center was conducted to compare the condition of leukemia patients who received stem cell transplant during 2009 - 2014, found that three years after transplantation, the incidence of severe chronic graft-versus-host disease occurred in patients receiving cord blood transplants lower than patients receiving transplants from donors who are not blood related but have HLA match. Patients who received cord blood transplants also tend to no longer require immunosuppression and less frequent infections and advanced treatment. There was no difference in overall survival rates between the two techniques.

"When you do an allogeneic transplant - where someone else is a donor - a new blood system has the potential to attack the patient. This is called Graft-versus-host-disease, which can be harmful and even fatal. The results of this study indicate that, over the long term, graft-versus-host disease is less common in cord blood transplants than donors who have no blood relation but have HLA match, "said dr. Jonathan Gutman, a researcher from the CU Center and Director of the Alogenic Stem Cell Transplant Clinic at the University of Colorado Hospital.

A common treatment for blood cancer is to remove the patient's leukemic blood system and regenerate the new blood system using donor blood stem cells. There are 4 sources of cell donors: donors with HLA blood and HLA connections (usually close family members), donors who are not blood related but have HLA match (from 25 million people who agree to be donors), cord blood (from bank umbilical cord blood storage), and haploidentic transplantation (a promising technique that requires only partial HLA matching with a blood donor). The closer the match between the donor cell and the patient's blood system, the less likely the new blood system invades the patient's tissue, in other words the possibility of graft-versus-host disease becoming smaller.

Donors that have HLA blood and match relationships are the first choice usually taken. Genetically, siblings have the greatest chance of HLA match, 25%. For those who do not have the donor, there is a 70% chance for the Caucasian race or only 10% for other races or mixed ethnicities to find donors who are not blood related but have HLA matches from other people who agree to donor if needed. The umbilical cord blood is immature and therefore does not require a perfect fit to be accepted as a donor source (haploidentic transplantation beyond the scope of this article).

"Doctors have previously reserved cord blood for patients who do not have suitable donors," Gutman said.

Currently, the usual flow of donor selection is increasingly being questioned along with the emergence of data from recent studies showing that cord blood is equivalent or better than transplantation from donors who are not blood related but have HLA match.

"Many service centers reserve cord blood transplants for their worst cases, so this action was initially known to have a low success rate. This action also requires some more cost - it takes a little longer for umbilical cord blood cells to start working so that the patient requires longer treatment. However, if you look beyond the first 100 days - the point at which many centers stop collecting data - there is clear evidence that cord blood exceeds the cell capability of donors who have no blood relation but have HLA match, "Gutman said.

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"As a result, we chose to use umbilical cord blood as the first option in cases that did not have donors with HLA blood and match relationships," Gutman said. Given the importance of stem cells for the cure of cancer including blood disorders, it is very important for parents to store their baby's cord blood. Not only for the baby, your baby's stem cells can also be used for his siblings. Store stem cells in blood banks that have standard standard facilities as required by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB).