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Advantages
Cord blood stem cells can rebuild the body’s entire tissues, including blood and immune systems. Placed in this context, the clear advantage of umbilical cord blood stem cells cannot be ignored. This potential lifeline provides an improved alternative to bone marrow transplants25, as well as for treating and curing malignant or hereditary diseases.
Cord blood is a natural, rich and readily available source of high quality primary stem cells. These cells continue to prove invaluable in the development of stem cell treatments because they can revitalize the body’s organs and systems. With the right growth cues, these remarkable cells can develop into whatever tissues are needed, ranging from the skin, to nerve cells, the heart, blood, immune systems and more.
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Stem cell treatments are currently improving patients’ lives and giving them a chance to overcome more than 70 life-threatening illnesses. Stem cells are highly sophisticated. They’re smart enough to find their way in the body to the injured area where they start the healing process, rejuvenating the damaged cells and tissue.
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Cord blood stem cells are young and versatile with a great ability for self renewal. The quality of cord blood stem cells makes them ideal for stem cell treatments – they are acquired at such an early stage in life, typically before the baby has acquired any diseases. This makes them almost flawless, free of infections and contamination.
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Once frozen, banked stem cells are available for immediate use in stem cell treatments at any time. Offering an ever-ready path to health, stem cells provide the child with 100% compatibility, eliminating the need to search for a donor.
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GvHD (Graft-versus-Host-Disease), when the transplanted stem cells from a donor recognize the recipient’s body as foreign and attack it, is the leading cause of death following a transplant. Cord blood stem cells are less likely to cause GvHD than bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells21. In autologous transplant (self donation) GvHD is avoided. With related donor transplants of cord blood, there is little immune resistance as compared with adult stem cells transplant, or cord blood from unrelated donors.
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Cord blood secures high rates of compatibility for first-degree relatives, with very positive outlooks ranging between 25-50%. Having a cord blood unit stored for the family improves family members’ chances for successful stem cell treatment and transplants, releasing you from the time-consuming and uncertain ordeal of searching for a donation. Professor Nagler, an international expert in stem cell medicine at Sheba Hospital in Israel, explained: “Cord blood cells that have been stored for the family give a great availability advantage. It reduces the need to find a family member or appropriate adult bone marrow donation, a process that could take two or three months. Only one in four patients finds a suitable bone marrow donor for his family.”
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Cord blood stem cells do not have to be matched as precisely as do stem cells from adult donors22. For example a bone marrow transplant requires 100% compatibility, whereas, stem cell treatment with cord blood can be just as successful with a patient-donor match of only 4 out of 6 parameters, or 67%.
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Transplant patients who’ve received stem cells from a close relative donor can expect a much easier and rapid road to recovery following their stem cell treatment compared to when they receive stem cells from an unrelated donor.
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Despite the enormous impact stem cells can have on your baby’s life, the collection procedure couldn’t be simpler. Perfectly painless and safe for both mother and child, the collection process takes no more than five minutes. Cord blood collection doesn’t disturb delivery, whether regular or cesarean.
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Unlike embryonic stem cells, cord blood is a non-controversial source of stem cells22. Cord blood stem cells are not unethical in any way and they carry no political or religious issues.
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Umbilical blood that is stored doesn’t have an expiry date22. The cells can be stored in cryopreservation for an unlimited amount of time. In fact, it has been scientifically proven that umbilical blood that was preserved after birth can be used in stem cell treatment for at least 20 years after cryopreservation. Studies have shown that the features of the cells can remain unchanged for decades.
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Any decision regarding the type of treatment to be provided is made by the physician or the treatment team. To decide what the most appropriate course of action is, a number of factors are considered: Available patient and disease information, together with every known available solution. Naturally, as science and medical research evolve, doctors are able to discover more and more solutions for diseases based on stem cell treatment, making this approach increasingly favored.
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