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About the body’s own (autologous) stem cells and the possible use are some common misconceptions that, also due to new developments, are not or no longer relevant. If you search the internet make sure you look at the date of publication. The research developments are such that old information might not be relevant anymore or new research comes to different conclusions. The most common misconceptions are mentioned below.
Only when a person is suffering from a genetic disease or condition it is common practice to use donor cells, in all other cases your own stem cells are always first choice. For example genetic Leukemia (50% of all leukemia cases) is always treated with donor stem cells in fear of re-introducing the disease.
For all other conditions (autoimmune diseases, other blood diseases, cerebral palsy, autism, etc.), the use of a person's own stem cells is always the first choice. The very high demand for donors is often due to the fact that no stem cells of the current generation are stored.
Rejection of donor stem cells is unfortunately common. Approx. 40% of all transplants fail due to the graft-versus-host reaction. If successful the recipient needs to take anti-rejection medication.
Being able to benefit from donor cells to treat a disease if of course an incredible opportunity for patients suffering from a myriad of diseases.
Discarding cord blood is actually, with today’s knowledge, not an option anymore. Donating is definitely an option but banking your child’s own stem cells privatly is incredibly important. Cord blood can already be used to treat 80 different diseases and conditions and this is only the beginning. There is no other 100% match in the world.
Consider entering yourself in the public donor program. Check out www.matchis.nl for the options.
In this case your child will keep its options open and you can attribute to the world wide request for donors.
Stories circulate the internet about the idea that cord blood does not contain enough stem cells for a useful treatment. Nothing is more wrong. First of all these calculation are based on allogeneic (donor) stem cells. Secondly it depends on the type of condition that needs to be treated.
The story of Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper speaks for itself.
In clinical trials doctors use lower numbers of stem cells each time and it is also an option to differentiate stem cells in vitro to increase the number of progenitor cells.
By differentiating the available stem cells you can reach a similar result with a lower number of stem cells.
Your child’s stem cells are your property until a certain legal age that differs per country.
After that the ownership transfers to the child itself, that is the law.
Our company is solely acting as a certified banking professional.