New technology exists to treat leukemia patients with stem cell technology using cord blood.
The problem is that it’s hard to find a bone marrow match for these patients. But this problem is starting to get fixed by using the blood from a newborn baby.
Also known as ‘cord blood’, this transplant was only used in kids before because scientists thought that the blood didn’t contain enough of the needed stem cells to replenish the circulatory system and thus fight leukemia. They were wrong because a new study by the New England Journal of Medicine says that there IS enough stem cells in cord blood to treat an adult.
This is really great because the study found that this new treatment provides a better success rates then a mismatched marrow type transplant.
More and more research needs to be done. But, all in all…it’s a great step for stem cell technology to incorporate the cord blood stockpiles that are out there to save peoples lives.