Umbilical Cord Blood Saves Leukemia Patient

The Seattle Times has a hopeful story about a patient who couldn’t find a compatible bone marrow donor, being effectively treated for leukemia by umbilical cord blood stem cells. UCB stem cells are much easier to match than bone marrow, but for adults there has always been a problem:

But adults are bigger [than children who have benefited from UCB stem cell treatments], and they need far more stem cells than children to quickly replace those killed off by the procedure. That includes white cells to protect against infections and disease. As a result, adults are vulnerable to potentially fatal infections for about 25 days after such a transplant, while the cells reproduce and build a new immune system.

But never underestimate the creativity of scientists:

Now, Dr. Colleen Delaney, a Hutchinson Center oncologist and researcher, thinks she may have found a way around the problem. Before transplant, the cord-blood stem cells are placed in a special culture that stimulates them to reproduce quickly. The technique draws on the research of Dr. Irwin Bernstein, a Hutchinson Center pioneer in learning how stem cells develop. Delaney has expanded the number of blood stem cells 150-fold in just 17 days. That reduces to 15 days the amount of time a patient is most vulnerable to infection. Scientists at other institutions have tried similar technology but increased the cells only fourfold. “This can open up a whole new donor pool for people who can’t find donors,” Delaney said.

This is still early experimentation. But there is a lot of hope out there.