Latest on Cord Blood Banking?

[Miss Violaceous]

I've read the previous threads on the topic, the most recent of which are a couple of years old. I'm wondering if there's been any evolution in thought on the utility of cord blood banking.

It's expensive but manageable for us if it's going to be potentially useful. I'm more intrigued by the promise shown for future stem cell treatments that may develop than for the extraordinarily unlikely scenario of childhood leukemia, etc. But it seems to me that progress towards stem cell therapies is going hand in hand with progress towards using stem cells that are universal, not donor-specific. So even if my child developed a disease that could be treated with stem cells in a decade's time, that doesn't mean they would need their own banked stem cells to do it.

(Add to this that there is a 50-50 chance of my husband having, and, I suppose, a 25% chance that any of our children will have a particular genetic condition that diminishes quality of life and longevity substantially. Stem cell therapy is being looked at to treat it.)

[Bridget Burke]

Private storage of cord blood is an expensive boondoggle. What are the bank's quality criteria? Insufficiently large cell quantities aren't useful in transplant--even to a child. Genetic problems usually disqualify cell use in transplant. Childhood leukemia? Means that the cells might have been not quite right from the beginning. Might your child later have a sibling who needs a donation? Then the child (or adult) can donate peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow--if they are a match. Which isn't guaranteed.

Here's some information (http://bethematch.org/Support-the-Cause/Donate-cord-blood/Cord-blood-options/)from the National Marrow Donor Program. They favor cord blood donation. So do I.