KNOWLEDGE BASE
Be equipped with all the necessary information to make an informed decision for your family today.
You may search by the following topics, which includes a list of enquiries answered by our Medical Director previously.
CORD BLOOD BANKING
Families with history of blood disorder and cancers
Cord blood banking potentially offers stem cell transplant as an extra treatment option.
Small families and single child families, mothers with difficult or late pregnancies, or sub-fertile couples
As the child may be the only child and hence will not have any donor if he develops any disease that requires a stem cell transplant.
Couples of Different Ethnic Groups
It will be difficult for these couples to find a donor from public cord blood banks as the genetic constitution would be very different.
The First Born Child
It is advisable to bank cord blood for the first born as we will not know if subsequent pregnancies will be successful. If the first born turns out to be the only child, he will not have any siblings to depend on for blood stem cells, should he require any.
1. Your baby’s cord blood collection yields the greatest number of stem cells possible and that the cells are viable and available if they are ever needed for transplant. StemCord has contributed to the care of patients with cancers. The successful engraftment of stem cells processed, stored and used in conventional stem cell transplants is a testament to the reliability of StemCord’s stringent processing and storage methods.
2. StemCord’s two laboratories and storage facilities are located in Singapore that is not subject to major environmental disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes. The cord blood can be shipped to any medical centre in the world should there be a need to retrieve your child’s cord blood for treatment.
3. The cord blood bank is financially stable and will be around in the future to ensure your baby’s stem cells will be available if needed. StemCord was founded with long-term storage objectives in mind as it believes that the best uses of stem cells will be in the future.
1To ensure the quality and safety of the cord blood collection, each doctor and hospital staff involved is required to undergo procedural training. However, please note that for every collection there is still a risk of breach of confidentiality, coercion to donate, a needle stick and emotional and ethical issues associated with the collection, storage and use of the cord blood unit.
CORD BLOOD STEM CELLS
Blood stem cells from cord blood are easier to harvest. The harvesting process does not pose significant risk 1 to both mother and child. Harvesting blood stem cells from the bone marrow requires general anaesthesia, which entails some health risk. Bone marrow harvesting also involves some pain, as opposed to no pain at all with cord blood harvesting.
Readily Available
The stored cord blood stem cells are always readily available. This is a potential advantage as we do not waste precious time searching for potential blood stem cell donors. In some conditions, e.g. Aplastic Anemia, the time to a stem cell transplant is critical and having some blood stem cells readily available is very important and can minimise disease progression.
Easier to Match
Stem cell transplants using cord blood has less Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD) and is therefore less risky for the recipient. This is because cord blood stem cells are less mature than those from the bone marrow and peripheral blood, and can successfully be used even when there is only a half-match. Due to lower GVHD risk, cord blood transplants can be attempted even if there is no perfect HLA matching. In private cord blood banking, the stored blood stem cells are kept for the individual. In view of the above, the stored cord blood stem cells can potentially be used for other family members.
1 To ensure the quality and safety of the cord blood collection, each doctor and hospital staff involved is required to undergo procedural training. However, please note that for every collection there is still risk of breach of confidentiality, coercion to donate, a needle stick and emotional and ethical issues associated with the collection, storage and use of the cord blood unit.
New uses for cord blood stem cells are being discovered rapidly. However, banking cord blood does not guarantee that the cells will provide a cure or be applicable for every situation. The treating physician will determine the ultimate use. The use of cord blood stem cells for emerging treatments is experimental. Please consult your physician.
CORD BLOOD BANKING PROCESS
COLLECTING CORD BLOOD
1 To ensure the quality and safety of the cord blood collection, each doctor and hospital staff involved is required to undergo procedural training. However, please note that for every collection there is still risk of breach of confidentiality, coercion to donate, a needle stick and emotional and ethical issues associated with the collection, storage and use of the cord blood unit.
PROCESSING & STORAGE OF CORD BLOOD
Storing cord blood separately will not reduce the cell dose
Having your baby’s cord blood stored separately will not reduce the cell dose and compromise the outcome of future treatments. This is because when you store with a private cord blood bank, all the cord blood units belong to your child for your family’s own use. This is an important difference from hybrid cord blood banks 1 , which also exist.
1 A hybrid cord blood bank splits your cord blood unit into two separate deposits, for both private and public use. Given that the cell dose is an important predictor of successful transplant outcomes, 2–4 such ‘split CB units’ might place their potential recipients at a disadvantage and their application, therefore, unlikely, unless successful stem expansion becomes practical in this setting. (Rubinstein, P. (2009) Cord blood banking for clinical transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplantation. 44. pp. 635-642)
For added security, our laboratories also feature back up generators, computer monitoring systems that limit entry to the cryogenic vault strictly to authorised personnel. There are also communication systems that maintain constant contact with our technicians while monitoring the laboratory and storage areas.
The facility and systems are monitored twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, to ensure the long-term security of your family’s stem cells.
2 Current medical literature proves that stem cells can maintain viability for 23 years.
Sources:
Broxmeyer HE, et al. Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, generation of induced pluripotent stem cells, and isolation of endothelial progenitors from 21 – 23.5-year cryopreserved cord blood. Blood. 2011. 117(18): 4773-4777. doi:10.1182/blood-2011- 01-330514 http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/content/117/18/4773.full.pdf
Linden JV, Preti RA, Dracker R. New York state guidelines for cord blood banking.Journal of Hematotherapy. 1997;6:535-41. Scaradavou, Stevens, Dobrila, Sung, Ruinstein. “Age” of the cord blood (CB) unit: Impact of long-term cryopreservation and storage on transplant outcomes. Abstract presented at: 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology; 2008.
Fungal Contamination: It is more frequent to pregnancy of more than 40 weeks
RETRIEVING CORD BLOOD
It depends on which country you are going to send. It ranges around a few thousands plus.
It is subjected to insurance coverage of appointed transporter.
CORD STEM CELLS
ABOUT STEMCORD & ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
ABOUT STEMCORD
StemCord stores in 2 bags in 2 different storage facilities. This extra bag and storage location give an added assurance to our clients in the event of unforeseen circumstances to happen to your collected cord blood sample if stored in only 1 bag and 1 facility.
StemCord has an affiliated company known as “Stem Med” (www.stem-med.sg) whose service is focus in adult stem cell banking and wholly own ISO 5 cleanrooms.
StemCord processes the entire umbilical cord before freezing the extracted cord stem cells. Studies have shown that extracting and culturing the stem cells before storage increases cell yield eight times more than the cell yield from frozen tissue.
StemCord allows early termination with pro-rated refund. We do not bind our clients unfairly to our long term contract including the 21- year one.
StemCord works closely with public-listed company called TalkMed, and provide a stem cell transplant solution especially to our StemCord clients. StemCord provides a transplant medicare of $50,000 coverage in the event that our clients do need to use the stem cell for treatment.
1 A hybrid cord blood bank splits your cord blood unit into two separate deposits, for both private and public use. Given that the cell dose is an important predictor of successful transplant outcomes, 2–4 such ‘split CB units’ might place their potential recipients at a disadvantage and their application, therefore, unlikely, unless successful stem expansion becomes practical in this setting.
(Rubinstein, P. (2009) Cord blood banking for clinical transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplantation. 44. pp. 635-642)
ADMINISTRATIVE FAQ
ASK OUR MEDICAL DIRECTOR
(DR TEO CHENG PENG)
We would like to help you further with your concerns regarding cord blood banking, stem cells and medical conditions that may affect the cord blood banking process. Here, we have provided a list of enquiries that have been fielded by our Medical Director in the past.
Firstly, these cancers originate from the blood tissues or cells found in the blood. You have different types of blood cells – white blood cells, red blood cells, plasma and platelets. Cancer of the white blood cells is known as Leukaemia. This occurs when there is an abnormal increase of these cells in the body. Cancer of the plasma cells is known as Myeloma. Lymphoma refers to the cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system where these lymphoid cells present itself as a solid tumour. People should also know that if you have a high level of platelets in your blood, it is not cancer even though we still consider this to be a bone marrow problem. However, in some cases – 5 to 10 per cent – these cells may develop into Leukaemia years later.
As long as the baby is not at risk of being a Thalassemia Major, cord blood can be collected and stored, especially for autologous (one’s own) usage. The cord blood stem cells of babies born with Thalassemia Major are defective and hence, not useful for storage.
However, the cord blood will have to be more strictly examined if it is to be used. The pros and cons of using the cord blood must be weighed more carefully and the usage of the cord blood must be solely for autologous purposes.
For example, cerebral palsy is caused by hypoxia (a lack of oxygen to the brain) and can be treated with Regenerative Therapy using your son’s own cord blood stem cells. For other cancers like Wilm’s tumour, a type of childhood cancer, the cancer does not originate from the bone marrow or cord blood. Using one’s own cord blood stem cells can actually increase the chances of cure as they have not been exposed to chemotherapy and are therefore better in quality.
For Leukaemias, the best chance of a cure is to use stem cells from a fully matched sibling or unrelated donor. If no such donors are available, using your son’s stored cord blood stem cells is a reasonable option. Data from the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry shows that autologous SCTs provide cures. However, for certain conditions such as haemogloblinopathies (e.g. thalassaemia major or sickle cell anaemia), the defect is inherent in the bone marrow cells. A donor will be needed to provide stem cells without the primary defect for a SCT.
Therefore, while there is some truth that the presence of abnormal genes may prevent the use of stem cells in some diseases, there are many other types of diseases where the usage is not influenced by this concern at all.
“Sometimes the strength of the motherhood is greater than natural laws.”Barbara Kingsolver
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