Viewpoint on Stem Cell Banking

When I decided to do a search on Angel, I was thrilled that many blogsites have featured Angel's story. The aim of her parents in sharing the story was to enlighten and encourage other parents in Malaysia and the world to know that stem cells do exist in umbilical cord blood, and that it is possible to use the cells for a matched sibling in need. Her mother also expressed her happiness and satisfaction with StemLife's service and that the stem cells were viable for use.

Given all the medically published information available today, I am still astonished that a few local doctors question if umbilical cord blood stem cells should be collected at all and advise their patients that they will never need to use the stem cells and that banking stem cells would be a "waste of their money".

The number of therapies of stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood has increased since 1987, whilst the prices charged by many private companies for cord blood stem cell banking services have either stayed the same or decreased in price. Either way, clients and patients benefit from a lower price point from the perspective of inflation and an increased access to therapeutics and new research. In the next 15-20 years, it may be possible that stem cells could be used to treat many more conditions than just cancer or blood disorders.

Personally, my take on stem cells are as follows:

1. Stem cells may be useful in the future, bank them if it can be done so at reasonable cost and cause no bodily harm
2. Whether in private or public setting, there are many babies being born on a daily basis and not even 10% per year is being collected and banked in the most developed countries (US has approx. 4 million births per year).

Taking US figures -which would more fairly depict a mature stem cell banking industry- till today less than 10% of the total numbers of babies born have their cord blood stem cells banked privately or publicly. Frankly, I find it curious that public stem cell banks consider themselves as competing in the same space for umbilical cords. Surely, if it were freely accessible, the other 90% of mothers could be given the opportunity to donate their baby's stem cells with the possibility of saving another person's life.

I did some searching and found the possible reasons why this isn't so:

a) It's a combination of the high cost of processing and storing donated blood at public cord blood banks and a lack of awareness about cord blood donation among parents-to-be.

b) it costs a public bank about USD 1,000 to collect, rigorously test, freeze, and store a single unit of cord blood. With a price tag that high, and the public need for cord blood still relatively low (for transplantation in cancers and blood disorders that is), the day when every baby's cord blood is routinely stored probably won't come soon.

c) You aren't likely to see a widely publicized national drive to encourage new cord blood donors either. "Most public banks operate on a shoestring budget," says Mary Halet, cord blood program manager of the National Marrow Donor Program, a nonprofit organization that maintains the largest public listing of umbilical cord blood units available for transplantation in the United States. "With 4 million births annually, the current system would be overburdened if even one-quarter opted for donation." As a result, most public banks work with a select group of collecting hospitals, so they can manage the volume, Halet says.

Parents considering cord blood donation are also encouraged to enquire if their cord blood would be released to them should they need it, and whether their baby's stem cells will be used for research and not for transplantation. Effectively, parents release their rights over the cord blood stem cells to the bank and no longer have any control over its fate.

When choosing a private stem cell bank, quality of service ranks high on the selection factor. No point in selecting a bank which is cheap in pricing when there isn't a committment to ensuring that the cord blood units are collected right, delivered within 24 hrs to the processing laboratory and banked by a team who have the right management skills and professional background. A StemLife policy is that every unit is treated as if it were our own, right from the collection through to its cryopreservation.

A final note: StemLife occasionally receives enquiries about donation and patients needing stem cells, and with no hesitation, we have referred them to the local public authority. Just like public hospitals and private hospitals- a different segment of the population needs to be served. Similar to blood donation and banking, patients undergoing elective surgery may be asked to store their blood with the hospital a week in advance of their elective operation, preserving donated units for emergencies and others in need, stem cells banked privately will less likely drain public resources in future.

Allow patients and clients the right to choose, and public and private banks can co-exist for the betterment of everyone at large.