Is Storing Your Baby's Stem Cells a Solid Investment?

Beginning in the early ‘90s, biopharmaceutical companies began offering collection and storage services for umbilical cord blood stem cells (UCBSCs). The principle behind this service allows an insurance policy to new parents in case of certain diseases in their child. In the case of a blood-related disease, one of the four types of disease categories UCBSCs can be used to treat, the cryopreserved stem cells could be taken out of storage and administered to the patient. These stem cells give a fresh start for the patient’s body. For example, if the child is diagnosed with leukemia, a white blood cell specific cancer, this stockpile of blood stem cells can allow for growth of new healthy leukocytes, after chemotherapy rids the body of the deficient cells.

Twenty years later, how successful has this practice been? There have been cases of Umbilical Stem Cell (USC) Transplants utilizing the child’s stored UCBSCs. These examples are few and far between when compared against the price parents are paying in storage fees over the years. However, their link to disease treatment has always been clear and there is new research being done on this type of stem cells aimed at optimizing their usage in various treatments. Discarding the umbilical cord as medical waste doesn’t make much sense, in this day-in-age, as an alternative option to collecting and storing the cells.

Donating the umbilical cord for public storage of the UCBSCs may be the answer. Several experts in the field have been recommending donation as opposed to private banking for years now. This would build up a hematopoietic stem cell registry that would enable parents to utilize it if they found themselves in the situation of needing it. However the idea of donating instead of individual storage would require education on the parent’s behalf. For example, in the case of a family history of a disease proven to be treated with stem cells the best option would be to privately bank the cells for the child or future siblings. It doesn’t seem as though this counseling would come from the private banking companies. We cannot expect them to voluntarily relinquish the thousands of dollars in yearly revenue. Interestingly new laws in almost 30 states have been passed that require parents to be educated about the various options regarding their baby’s umbilical cord blood. Also an alternative option, pointed out on the Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood Foundation Website, is to follow Hong Kong and Germany’s lead. While parents in these countries privately bank their babies cord blood, the blood is HLA typed and the information is entered in the public registry. If a match comes up for an unrelated recipient the parents then have the choice of releasing the cells from their private store and donating for an allogeneic transplant. This seems like a happy medium and the private banking companies in the US could include HLA typing as part of their service (and fees).

As mentioned, there have been successful cases of withdrawing UCBSCs from private banks and treating a disease in the child or sibling. In addition there is research currently being conducted to optimize the amount of cells in a collection from the umbilical cord if the recipient was not a child. This would increase success when using these cells in adult recipients. Storing umbilical cord cells is the clear winner as opposed to trashing the cord but how they are categorized when stored could use a refresher. Private banking with the option of allowing these cells to be used in the public sector makes the most sense.