Why Cord Blood Transplants Are Better Alternatives To Bone Marrow Transplants?
The availability of matching donors is the main setback that bone marrow transplants patients face. There are cases when the patients even succumb to the disease while waiting for the ideal match. To further the list of disadvantages, the bone marrow collection procedure is quite painful and it takes a long time to see any positive result of bone marrow treatment. Cord blood transplant treatments have shown more benefits than bone marrow transplant treatments, these are – • Cord blood cells show greater chances of HLA matching between donors and patients. • Availability of umbilical cord blood stem cell makes it more accessible in need of transplants than bone marrow stem cells. The patient no longer needs to wait for a donor; he can be his own donor if his cord blood had been preserved after his birth. • Since the stem cells found in umbilical cords are the most primitive cells, therefore, when transplanted to the patients, these bring about lesser threat for graft-versus-host-disease
