8mm
Posted on 02/12/2008 4:32:20 PM PST by wagglebee
BRISTOL, UK, February 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A two year old girl from Suffolk has been cured of a rare form of cancer using genetically matched adult stem cells from a Japanese donor. Last week, news reports around the world revealed Sorrel Mason, a toddler from Great Wratting in Suffolk suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia, received a transplant of donated cells from a frozen umbilical cord from Tokyo.
Sorrel's mother, Samantha Mason, told media, "Sorrel would be dead now if she had been left untreated." The little girl was given a 30 per cent chance of survival when she was diagnosed. She has fully recovered since her treatment a year ago.
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a cancer of the white blood cells in which the abnormal cells proliferate and accumulate in the bone marrow and interfere with the production of normal blood cells. Symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, easy bruising and bleeding, and increased risk of infection. AML progresses rapidly and is typically fatal within weeks or months if left untreated.
Treatment normally involves chemotherapy, but haematopoietic stem cell transplant, involving cells taken from bone marrow or blood, is increasingly being used. Most frequently, haematopoietic stem cell transplants take the cells from the patient's own blood or bone marrow or those from a close relative. The cells used must be a close enough match to avoid immune system rejection.
Sorrel's treatment was done at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, which is a leading centre in the treatment of childhood leukaemia. Dr Jackie Cornish, director of the bone marrow transplant unit at the Bristol hospital, said their facility is among the best in Europe in stem cell transplant treatments and has been a leader in extending the pool of donors for stem cells.
"There is a choice," she said to the Evening Post. "We can have a brother or sister donor, a matched or acceptably mismatched unrelated donor, we can go to the umbilical cord blood panel and test for a match from there, or we can use a mismatched family relation, commonly a mother or father."
"We were the first to develop unrelated donor transplant in such volume, and we have all of the spectrum of donors to choose from."
I think you can donate cord blood as well.
If you're having a baby or you know somebody who's having a baby, please consider this simple, potentially lifesaving option.
now...if we could get to the point where it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to save the cord and store it -then we’ll see more stories like this here.
Maybe - if they could divert all that dough they would like to throw away on useless embryonic stem cell research towards storing effective cord cells then some real results could be seen.
Now how much is a time machine to go back and do this for my kids?
How much does it actually cost? From what I’ve been seeing, it doesn’t look to be horribly expensive.
The nasty little secret is that there really isn’t much private money being spent on embryonic stem cell research. That’s why they are always begging for government funding. Private corporations realize that there is no money to be made on ESC, so they are putting all of their money into adult stem cells.
Embryonic stem cell research has ALWAYS been seen as a safeguard for abortion. Otherwise, you would hear the media touting the successes from adult stem cells. As it stands now, the media would have us believe that the ONLY way to get stem cells was from aborted fetuses.
Or have another kid. Sibling cells are pretty primo, too!
“Or have another kid. Sibling cells are pretty primo, too!”
Havent been able to talk the Mrs into that.
As TheresaKett mentioned earlier (and I had heard mention of this recently), they are also starting to look at menstral lining as a source of stem cells and while this sounds somewhat disgusting, it makes good sense.
Tomorrow’s Valentines Day. :o)
with my last baby (about a year & 1/2 ago) I think it was around $300 or $400 for the initial deposit and then a yearly maintenance fee (forgot exactly what that was - maybe in the area of $100-$200)
Having another one in May here, so I should be getting updated info. here soon.
“they are also starting to look at menstral lining as a source of stem cells and while this sounds somewhat disgusting, it makes good sense.”
Makes sense and nothing really disgusting about it. Not anymore so then any other bodily fluid which all pretty much make me queasy. I could never work in the healthcare industry. Except maybe as a supervisor for those gorgeous pharmaceutical reps we always see at the doc.
Yes, but no doctor ever asks. It would be a simple matter, but there would have to be the infrastructure to deal with it. Perhaps the American Red Cross would take up this.
I’ve known a few of those pharmaceutical reps (my father-in-law is a physician) and you’ve hit the nail on the head. They are nothing more than glorified cocktail waitresses, you could take the dumbest Hooter’s waitress on the planet and turn her into one of the top pharmaceutical reps in the country in a month.
That’s not a prohibitive cost for most people and I would imagine that as it becomes more common the price will come down. I would guess that at $100 to $200 initially and $50 a year thereafter, just about everyone would go for it.
Thanks for the link...
My wife says “No More Babies for us”... we have 3 children now!
We stored two of three of our kids cord blood. I wish I had looked into it more before we had the first one.
They are also now able to use baby teeth to get this. It is a lot cheaper...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8140957/
Old article, not sure how it is coming along.
You would most likely have better luck donating to a company that specializes in this. Start by seeing if your hospital is a donation site too. Link on this:
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Donate_Cord_Blood_Share_Life/index.html
Info on where to donate:
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