Umbilical cord blood donated by a Yakima Valley mom has been matched to a 46-year old man suffering from leukemia, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital said today.
The match is the first since Memorial started collecting cord blood through the Puget Sound Blood Center for the National Cord Blood Inventory in 2008.
Cord blood collected from a mother following delivery contains valuable stem cells. When matched to a donor with a similar genetic code, stem cells can replace blood cells in the bone marrow of some cancer patients that can’t find or receive bone marrow transplants.
“This is very exciting for our staff,” says Maria Hernandez, program coordinator for Memorial.
Memorial is the only hospital east of the Cascades to participate in the Puget Sound Cord Blood Program. The program is part of a research study to investigate the uses of cord blood stem cells in treatment of medical disorders such as blood cancers.
Doug Mora, hospital services supervisor for the Puget Sound Cord Blood Program, said the Yakima program is important because it can be difficult to find matches for Native American patients.
To date, Memorial has donated 325 cord blood samples to the Puget Sound Blood Center. Of those, 71 made it through the screening process and are still awaiting matching recipients.