Cancer, which was supposed to be an incurable disease now, can be cured if detected at the right time. The rapid advancement of science and medicine has opened wide vistas before us for the treatment of deadly diseases like AIDS, Neurotic diseases and genetic disorders.
In many cases, your doctor may suggest a stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplantation as a possible solution for their illness. Also, a transplant of umbilical cord blood can be a good option. These stem cells are cells that form the blood of the human body and are widely used in transplantation. These cells help in the production of red blood cells, white cells and platelets. Previously only had 2 reliable sources of stem cells: bone marrow and peripheral blood. However, the recent discovery that umbilical cord blood is also good and plentiful source of stem cells. Cord blood and debris contained therein are usually discarded after childbirth, but has now been discovered that cord blood is a source rich in stem cells that can be easily used in transplants. Over the past ten years, more than 4,000 transplants of cord blood (UCBT) have been performed worldwide.
The interest in this modality of transplantation has increased dramatically, as this facilitates access to an alternative for the treatment of cancer and serious illness. The first transplant of umbilical cord blood was performed in 1988 on a young cancer patient. Seeing the tremendous success of this experiment, it became common practice with many doctors to recommend UCBT as the solution for the treatment of disease. Moreover, there are some critics who think UCBT many complications can arise after a transplant.
Umbilical cord blood contains stem cells, a coveted commodity in medicine. Stem cells from cord blood — particularly blood supplied by unrelated donors — have been used to treat diseases such as cancer and some genetic conditions. Those cells can be used to treat many of the same illnesses (multiple myeloma or leukemia, for example) as stem cells found in bone marrow, but they’re easier to use because they’re already banked and the tissue types of the donor and recipient don’t have to be as closely matched. Such treatments appear to be as successful as bone marrow transplants in some cases.
Moreover, the emergence of regenerative medicine has created potential new uses for cord blood. Some researchers are working to coax cord blood stem cells into becoming a range of tissues that might one day be used to treat an array of diseases or to repair injuries. Viewing the promise of cord blood stem cells as a form of health insurance, about 5% of parents now bank their newborn’s cord blood, with about 80% of that going to private banks for the child’s own possible use and about 20% going to public banks.
