Stem cells harvested at birth are more effective in the case of a transplant than those extracted from the bone marrow

Umbilical cord blood harvested at birth is a source of younger stem cells compared to bone marrow. Two recent studies come to confirm that there are patients for whom a stem cell transplantation from the umbilical cord blood is preferred instead of a bone marrow stem cell transplant. Researchers from the Cancer Center of the University of Colorado, USA, collected statistical data from 108 transplant cases and found that three years after treatment, patients who received cord blood stem cell transplantation were at a much higher risk . More specifically, the rate of graft versus host disease was five times lower for patients who received ovarian-stem cell transplantation than those with bone marrow stem cell transplantation (8% vs. 44 . Graft versus host disease is a situation where the immune system of the graft used in transplant attacks the patient's body, altering the quality of life or even being fatal.

An article published in the journal New England Journal of Medicine concludes that umbilical cord blood can be a superior source for patients with leukemia at high risk of recurrence. The high risk is associated with the presence of cancer cells following drug treatment, which is applied before a transplant. These patients are experiencing poor results and significant recurrence after transplantation. The comparison of results for the 582 patients shows that umbilical cord blood is a preferable alternative for those with partial remission before transplantation. The two studies presented above claim that there are various patient groups for which a stem cell transplantation from the umbilical cord blood is the best choice among all existing stem cell sources.

Source: stemcellsbank. En Retrieved from: Csid. .