What is cord blood banking?
Cord blood banking is simple, safe and secure. A life-giving opportunity that happens only at the time of a birth, it offers a powerful medical resource in fighting devastating chronic and acute diseases. Think of it as an investment in your family's future.
Stem cells are the "mother cells," which give rise to all of the cells in the human body. Stem cells are at the forefront of one of the most fascinating and revolutionary areas of biology today. Scientists are rapidly discovering many revolutionary uses for stem cells, because they have the unique capability to either multiply or develop into other cell types. There are different types of stem cells. A "hematopoietic" stem cell is the type collected from the umbilical cord blood. Cord blood stem cells can multiply and develop into the major components of bone marrow, blood, and the immune system.
Ongoing stem cell research is spawning ever-increasing knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell, and most importantly, how healthy cells can replace damaged cells. This latter field is often referred to as regenerative or reparative medicine and stem cells are currently being used to treat more than 80 acute and chronic diseases.
Why save cord blood?
By choosing to preserve your baby's cord blood with NECBB, you will preserve your family's chance to potentially use it as a part of a treatment therapy for over 80 diseases, including various cancers, genetic diseases, blood disorders and immune system deficiencies.
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Why Should You Bank Your Baby's Cord Blood? |
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Potential to save your baby's or another family member's life.
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A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: Immediately after birth.
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The cord blood collection process is simple, painless and harmless to the baby and mother.
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30%-70% of people who need bone marrow transplants cannot find a match. Banking your baby's stem cells improves the odds of having a proper match for your baby or another family member. Finding a proper match is especially problematic for African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and people of mixed ethnicity.
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Especially beneficial if a family member has a condition that can be treated with a stem cell transplant, such as sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, aplastic anemia, leukemia, metabolic storage disorders and certain genetic immunodeficiencies.
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Future medical advances might allow stem cells to treat even more diseases and be used in more transplant cases than current medical practices. |
Cord blood is easily collected through a process that poses no risk to you or your baby. Using a family member's stored stem cells offers patients in need a higher probability of finding an exact or acceptable match for their transplantation needs. The probability that the stem cells will be an exact match is 1/1 for the child from whom the stem cells were collected, 1/2 for the mother and the father of this child and 1/4 for a sibling of the child whose stem cells were saved.
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Cord Blood Facts |
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Likelihood of an exact match with a family member:
Likelihood of use:
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1 in 400 for a Donor/Child (Blood, October 2004)
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1 in 1,400 for a Family Member (Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, 1997)
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1 in 7 North Americans prior to age 70 will require treatment for cardiac repair (i.e., Myocardial Infarction or Congestive Heart Failure) (Nietfeld & Verter, 2004)
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Over 6,000 cord blood stem cell transplants have been reported worldwide
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More than 400-500 new patients receive treatment annually |
In addition, stem cells from cord blood are better than stem cells from bone marrow because they are less prone to "graft vs. host disease" (GVHD - an immune system attack by donor cells against the recipient) and other complications relating to the recipient body rejecting foreign cells. Most importantly, banked cord blood is available when you and your family need it most, allowing treatment to begin almost immediately, without time spent searching for a match.
