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New York Blood Center Lead Scientists, Reps. Chris Smith and Artur Davis, Others Urge Senate to Pass Pending Cord Blood Bill

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 15:00 CDT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- United with the common goal of saving the lives of thousands who continue to needlessly die each year, leaders from New York Blood Center's National Cord Blood Program (NCBP) and the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Artur Davis (D-Ala.), Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), Donna Christensen (Del.-V.I.), and other members of congress, NBA legend Julius "Dr. J" Erving, cord blood transplant recipients and others joined today to plea for the Senate to vote on the Bone Marrow & Cord Blood Therapy & Research Act of 2005 (S1317). The press conference took place at the Cannon House Office Building, Cannon Terrace, 2nd Fl., Independence Ave. SE, Washington, DC.

"The sooner S1317 is passed, the sooner we can begin to save the lives of patients in need of a transplant," said Pablo Rubinstein, MD, director of New York Blood Center's National Cord Blood Program. "As everyone in both the House and Senate seem to be on the same page in regard to the benefits of cord blood, in the effort to save lives we beg the Senate to pass S1317 while it works out the issues it has with the non-cord blood related stem cell bills. This is a life and death situation for many and every second counts."

This past May the Stem Cell Therapeutic & Research Act of 2005 (HR2520) passed in the House by a vote of 431 to 1. Led with overwhelming bi-partisan support in both the House (Reps. Chris Smith, Artur Davis) and Senate (Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), Tom Harkin (D- Iowa), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)), the Senate's vote on S1317 has been held up.

Passage of the bill would create the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program, providing for the collection and maintenance of cord blood units for the treatment of patients and research, and amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Bone Marrow and Cord Blood Cell Transplantation Program to increase the inventory of suitably matched bone marrow and cord blood stem cells available to patients. The goal is to reach a total inventory of 150,000 units so that matched stem cells will be available to treat more than 90 percent of patients, with a special focus on providing units for diverse patient populations.

Providing physical examples of the life-saving power and potential of cord blood transplants were cord blood recipients Keone Penn, the first patient to be cured of sickle cell disease with a cord blood transplant from an unrelated donor; Stephen Sprague, one of the first adults treated with cord blood for leukemia; and Erik Haines, who was cured of Krabbe's Disease. Each told their stories and discussed the patient perspective of transplants. In addition, NBA legend Julius "Dr. J" Erving was on hand to comment briefly on cord blood and its treatment of sickle cell disease.

Every year several thousand U.S. children and adults develop a lethal disease like leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia and certain inherited diseases of the blood and immune system that can only be cured with a marrow transplant. An estimated 20,000 have no relative who can give them matched bone marrow. Most of these cannot find a suitable unrelated donor among the several million volunteer donors in marrow donor registries. Further, many patients are not aware that cord blood stem cells may be a viable alternative treatment for their conditions.

Cord blood, donated by the mother, is a non-controversial source of stem cells which, unlike bone marrow, can be collected without risk of any kind to donors. It is then stored frozen, in fully viable condition, ready to be used at any time for a transplant. Another advantage of cord blood is that it does not require as exact of a match with the patient's tissue type as a bone marrow transplant. Thus, patients with uncommon tissue types, as is the case for many persons in ethnic minority groups, are able to find appropriate, though less than full, matches.

New York Blood Center (NYBC), one of the nation's largest non- profit, community-based blood centers, has been providing blood, transfusion products and service to patients in New York and New Jersey hospitals since 1964. NYBC includes five regional recruitment, collection and distribution operations in Manhattan, Brooklyn/Staten Island, Long Island, New Jersey and the Hudson Valley. NYBC is also home to the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, the National Cord Blood Program and Milstein National Cord Blood Center, the worldbs first and largest public cord blood bank. NYBC provides medical services and program (Clinical, Transfusion and Hemophilia Services) through our medical professionals and transfusion medicine physicians.

For more information, visit the National Cord Blood Program's informational Web site at http://www.nationalcordbloodprogram.org.

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Source: U.S. Newswire

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