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Statewide Blood Bank to Collect Umbilical Cord Blood: More Doctors Using Cord Stem Cells to Treat Patients With Leukemia

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Melissa Mcever, Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas

Apr. 12--A statewide blood bank soon will begin collecting umbilical cord blood, which has the potential to save the lives of leukemia and lymphoma patients, in the Rio Grande Valley.

The Texas Cord Blood Bank, a division of South Texas Blood & Tissue Center in San Antonio, will start collecting cord blood in May from consenting families at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen and Brownsville, Carmen Davila, spokeswoman for the center, said.

"We wanted to expand to the Valley because of its diversity," Davila said.

"That's something that is key and can improve the chances of a (donor-recipient) match."

Cord blood, which is extracted from the umbilical cord and placenta after birth, often is rich in stem cells, or cells that have not yet differentiated.

These cells can produce many other types of blood cells, and therefore can be used to treat leukemia, lymphoma and blood disorders.

More and more doctors are using cord-blood stem cells instead of bone marrow stem cells to treat patients with leukemia, Brownsville oncologist and hematologist Dr. Balesh Sharma said.

With cord blood, "there's a low risk of complications after the transplant," Sharma said.

Some bone marrow transplant recipients are at risk of "graft versus host disease," a possibly fatal complication in which the donated cells attack the recipient's tissues, Sharma said.

Cord blood transplant recipients are at a lower risk of this complication.

According to the March of Dimes, more recipients potentially could benefit from cord blood than from bone marrow because the donor-recipient match doesn't have to be as exact with cord blood.

Also, cord blood extraction is painless, unlike bone marrow extraction, which requires surgery.

There is no risk to the donor, officials said.

Umbilical cord blood is collected after the birth of a healthy baby.

If the mother consents, a trained nurse extracts about one cup of blood from the baby's umbilical cord or placenta, Davila said.

The mother cannot have certain pre-existing conditions and must meet other requirements in order to donate, Carla Chila, director of women's services for Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen, said.

One nurse at each of the two hospitals will be trained to collect donations, Chila said. The donated cord blood will be available for patients throughout the state.

The bank is the only one of its kind in Texas, and one of at least 20 in the United States.

Last year, President Bush signed the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, which earmarked funds to establish a national cord blood bank and to expand the national bone-marrow registry to include cord blood. The Texas Cord Blood Bank is part of that effort, officials said.

Researchers have found that cord blood stem cells can differentiate into many types of tissue, including blood cells, but are unconvinced they are as versatile as embryonic stem cells.

For conditions such as leukemia, lymphoma, immune system conditions and blood disorders, however, cord blood stem cells can be invaluable, experts say. More doctors using cord stem cells to treat patients with leukemia

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Copyright (c) 2006, Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas)

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