Why the need for a public donor umbilical cord blood bank??
More than 70 percent of children and adults requiring a bone marrow transplant do not have an immune matched sibling. Of those, 50 percent will be able to find a matched unrelated donor through the national bone marrow registries. Current bone marrow registries involve keeping a computerized listing of volunteer donors. The average search time is three to four months and is extremely expensive. Because immune types are specific to ethnic groups and bone marrow registry volunteers are predominately Caucasian, it is difficult (if not impossible) to locate donors for non-Caucasian (African-American, Hispanic, Native American) patients. Cord blood that has been immunologically typed and frozen offers an opportunity as an alternate transplant source. By collecting umbilical cord blood from donors of different ethnic backgrounds, a larger number of patients will benefit. The St. Louis Cord Blood Bank at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital/Saint Louis University is a public donor bank, that
