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National Aplastic Anemia and MDS Awareness Week
Sunday, December 5th, 2010
Bone marrow failure disorders affect hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world, from children to adults. National Aplastic Anemia and MDS (myelodysplastic syndromes) Awareness Week (December 1-7) is helping to spread the word about two of these disorders. It is also an opportunity to shed light the role cord blood can play in helping to treating these potentially life-threatening diseases.
Why bone marrow matters
Bone marrow makes red and white blood cells and platelets that are vital to our existence. Each has a specific function—red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients throughout the body; white blood cells help our bodies fight infection; and platelets help the blood clot and stop bleeding.
Categories: Current Treatments, Transplants and Infusions
Cord Blood Treatments Today – Sickle Cell Disease
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
We don’t often think about blood unless we’re at the doctor or bandaging a cut. But blood is always there, hurriedly carrying nutrients and oxygen to cells and transporting waste and carbon dioxide so it can be removed from the body. Blood is comprised mostly of plasma containing red and white blood cells, including leukocytes and platelets. Of the different types of cells contained in blood, red blood cells are the most copious. But what happens if the body creates abnormal red blood cells?
That is the case with sickle cell disease. Within red blood cells are proteins called hemoglobin, which give blood its red color and, more importantly, carry oxygen from the lungs through the blood and to the different tissues in the body. With sickle cell disease, the body begins to create abnormal hemoglobin that transforms the shape of red blood cells from a disc to a crescent or C-shape.
Categories: Current Treatments
A Gift of Love, the Gift of Life: An Enduring Sibling Connection
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Click the image above to listen to the Podcast
It’s nearly impossible to understand how Traci and Kevin felt when they learned that their son, Nicholas, only 2 ½ years old, was diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors told Traci and Kevin that the best course of treatment for Nicholas was chemotherapy. In Nick’s case, doctors recommended a 2 ½ year course of chemotherapy—a harsh protocol with plenty of side effects, but it carried a good chance for a successful outcome. A stem cell transplant was reserved as an option if Nick relapsed.
But when Nick’s oncologist learned that Traci was expecting while Nick was still receiving chemotherapy, the oncologist urged her to bank the baby’s cord blood as a possible source of stem cells for Nick should he ever need a transplant. The oncologist told Traci about the Sibling Connection, a unique partnership between ViaCord and the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI). The Sibling Connection provides ViaCord’s cord blood collection and storage for 5 years at no cost to expecting parents who have a child who may be in need of umbilical…
Categories: Current Treatments, Family Matters, Inside ViaCord
September 23rd is Stem Cell Awareness Day!
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
For the millions of people around the world who suffer from incurable diseases and injury, Stem Cell Awareness Day is a day to celebrate the scientific advances made to-date and be hopeful of what is yet to come, according to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) . And we’d have to say, we agree.
Stem cells from umbilical cord blood have been used in nearly 13,000 transplants worldwide during the last 20 years to treat nearly 80 diseases in adults and children. They are showing encouraging results in research for regenerative medicine, including treatment for diabetes and various forms of brain injury, such as cerebral palsy.
Despite all the great news about cord blood stem cells and the hope that they provide for the future, there still exists a critical education gap. According to a study published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine nearly 75% of expectant mothers in the study considered themselves “minimally informed” when it comes to cord blood banking.
Categories: Current Treatments