In its recent report on the ethics of private umbilical cord banking, the European Commission’s Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) made several pertinent statements that should be considered by all healthcare providers when offering private umbilical cord blood banking to expectant parents.1

A private, for-profit umbilical cord blood bank was launched in New Zealand in 2003. Like other private cord blood banks (CellSence, Australia, and CordBlood Registry, Canada), CordBank offers expectant parents a service for the autologous collection and storage of their baby’s umbilical cord blood for the future treatment of life-threatening diseases (http://www.cordbank.co.nz).

Promoted as an “insurance for the future”, private cord blood banks publicise their services based on the successful use of umbilical cord blood for allogeneic stem cell transplantation from public unrelated cord banks, but frequently do not make it clear to parents the crucial distinction between allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplantation. Private services also promote cord blood banking as “once in a life time opportunity” to store a baby’s stem cells for the treatment of degenerative disease, without significant evidence that cord blood stem cells (as opposed to other stem cells) offer unique benefits for this purpose.

To make an informed choice, and assess for themselves the benefits of autologous cord blood storage, expectant parents need to be provided with independent and accurate information by midwives and GPs. Unfortunately, the only information available to most parents is that provided by the private cord blood bank services themselves, which is often inaccurate and confusing:

The umbilical cord at delivery is a rich source of multipotent haematopoietic stem cells.2 Like all stem cells, cord blood stem cells possess two important characteristics; the capacity for indefinite self-renewal, and the ability to differentiate into a spectrum of cell lineages. When collected from unrelated (allogeneic) donors and infused into a tissue matched patient, cord blood stem cells recapitulate haematopoietic development of the bone marrow, and have a potent graft-versus-leukaemia benefit.3,4

Since cord blood stem cells are immunologically naïve, these transplants need less strict tissue matching, and importantly cause less severe acute graft-verses-host disease compared to bone marrow or blood derived haematopoietic stem cells.4–8

Since the first umbilical cord blood transplant in 1988, over 3000 transplants have been reported to the international Netcord consortium, a network of 32 international public domain blood banks in 21 countries.9 Nearly all reported cases have used allogeneic cord blood: that is from a matched related donor such as a sibling, or from an unrelated donor through the altruistic gifting of a baby’s umbilical cord to a public bank. An international cooperative network, Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (http://www.bmdw.org), facilitates access to gifted cord blood donations in these public banks via affiliated local registries such as the New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry (NZBMDR).

Importantly, public non-profit cord banks must comply with minimum standards and codes of conduct as established by the umbrella professional organisations, the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT, http://www.factwebsite.org), and Netcord.

Since private cord blood banks offer a service for autologous cord blood storage, what is the potential for using your own cord blood stem cells to treat a life threatening disease? The websites of private for-profit cord banks in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada all contain remarkably similar information claiming cord blood can be used to treat over 45 conditions including leukaemia, solid tumours, and many genetic metabolic disorders.

Even though CordBank (New Zealand) has recently updated its website (in response to requests to do so – Dec 2004) the information provided by these three cord banks is confusing for parents and is arguably misleading. Most of the conditions listed by private cord banks require allogeneic donor cord blood, and very few life-threatening conditions needing an autologous stem cell transplant will specifically require cord blood derived stem cells.

While CordBank’s website does state that many conditions treatable by cord blood transplantation require allogeneic stem cells, this will be unclear to parents and is a confusing justification for autologous cord blood banking.

For instance, private cord banks cite childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) as an example of a life-threatening disease potentially treatable by cord blood transplantation. However, approximately 80% of children with ALL are now cured by treatment with chemotherapy alone, and few will need a stem cell transplant, and those who do need an allogeneic and not an autologous transplant.

Allogeneic stem cells transplants improve outcome in leukaemia by inducing a graft-versus-leukaemia effect (GVL), which enhances the antileukaemic effect of the pre-transplant conditioning chemotherapy, whereas autologous stem cell transplants possess no potential for GVL.10,11

An additional reason for not recommending transplantation for the treatment of childhood ALL is recent research which shows the umbilical cord blood of children who develop leukaemia has detectable numbers of preleukaemic lymphoblasts present at birth.12 While the significance of this finding can be argued there is a risk, in theory, of reinfusing preleukaemic lymphoblasts back into the patient.

What about other conditions such as solid tumours and genetic metabolic disorders? Autologous stem cell transplantation from harvested bone marrow or peripheral blood is routinely used to treat children with solid tumours such as neuroblastoma, Ewing’s sarcoma, and relapsed lymphomas. But these stem cells are readily available from the patient’s own bone marrow and it is not necessary to store umbilical cord stem cells for this purpose.

Autologous cord stem cell transplantation is obviously not indicated in the treatment of heritable genetic diseases, as these stem cells have the patient’s own genetic defect. However, the information available to parents from private cord banks does not make this point clear.

So what are the chances that individual will use their own umbilical cord blood to treat a life-threatening disease? Estimates vary from between 1:10,000 to 1:200,000. Possibly the only absolute indication for an autologous cord blood transplant is an acquired bone marrow failure syndrome such as aplastic anaemia. This rare disorder affects about 1 child in 200,000, but approximately 70% of cases can be treated with immunosuppressive therapy alone, and do not need a transplant.

It has proven difficult to establish how many privately banked autologous cord blood units have ever been used for the treatment of life threatening diseases. The literature contains only anecdotal reports, and no private cord bank has ever published a case series. The largest private cord bank in North America claims 34 stem cell units have been used, but ironically most have been for allogeneic transplants of siblings.13

The Auckland CordBank has used none of its 2400 banked cord units. Importantly, New Zealand legislation restricts the use of privately collected umbilical cord blood to the child from whom it was collected. To use private banked cord blood for treatment a sibling would require an application to the Ministry of Health for an exemption to this rule. However, should a situation arise where a privately stored cord blood transplant might be indicated for treatment of the donor or a sibling, there are very real questions concerning the quality of these cord blood units.

In the absence of independent regulatory oversight, and audit of the adequacy of collection, laboratory manipulation, and storage of private cord blood units, treating physicians will have to make some judgement concerning the safety of proceeding to a high risk transplant with a potentially suboptimal cord blood unit. While New Zealand’s CordBank has been approved by Medsafe, this approval does not ensure privately collected and stored cord blood units will meet the standards for transplantation as determined by the FACT consortium.

With few current indications for autologous cord stem cell transplantation, it is the tantalising prospect of using cord derived stem cells for regenerative medicine that is marketed to parents as a reason for storing their baby’s umbilical cord blood. Private cord banks present parents with “a-once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to preserve their baby’s “unique, perfectly matched stem cells”, as an insurance for their child’s future wellbeing. This clearly exploits the community’s growing awareness of embryonic stem cells research while not making it clear that this technology is many years from coming into clinical use.

Umbilical cord blood contains a complex mix of stem cells. In vivo haematopoietic cord blood stem cells differentiate into all haematopoietic cell lineages, and may have some additional lineage plasticity but do not show the same pluripotency as embryonic stem cells. Other cord blood cells, such as the mesenchymal stem cell are of interest because of they have the potential to differentiate into other lineages such a bone, fat, bone marrow stroma and muscle.14,15

However, the umbilical cord is not the only, or necessarily the best source of stem cells, as similar cell types have been isolated from adult bone marrow and from peripheral blood following stimulation with haematopoietic growth factors.16,17

While the idea of storing cord stem cells appears progressive and far-sighted, it is equally likely that the methods applied to identification and manipulation of cord blood derived stem cells will be applicable to other stem cell sources, such as the bone marrow and peripheral blood, and may not be restricted those derived from cord blood alone. Furthermore, it is unclear whether cord blood stem cells will still be viable after more than 40–50 years of cryopreservation for use in the treatment of degenerative disease.

In the absence of a matched, related, bone marrow donor, it has been very difficult in New Zealand (even with improved bone marrow donor registration) to find suitable unrelated donors for many Maori and Polynesian patients requiring stem cell transplantation. Although the situation for matching Maori and Polynesian patients has recently improved, it is ironic that the only cord bank available in New Zealand is a private, for-profit service offering autologous cord stem cell storage to families who will probably never need it.9

Until now it has been difficult to justify the development of a public cord blood bank (first proposed in 1997; Lochie Teague), because most allogeneic cord stem cell transplants have been restricted to a small number of children due to the smaller stem cell dose required. However, several recent reports have shown that well collected and stored cord blood units have sufficient stem cells for transplanting adult patients. When used to treat adults with various leukaemias, unrelated cord blood transplants have comparable clinical outcomes to matched unrelated bone marrow transplants, with less acute graft-versus-host disease.6,7,18–21

Given this new data, it is timely to recommend a review of the case for establishing a non-profit, public bank, for the altruistic gifting of cord blood specifically to meet New Zealand’s unique ethnic needs.

Whether or not to store your baby’s umbilical cord blood may well be a matter personal choice, but cord blood banking is a medical procedure done at a critical time for a mother and her baby, and as such it is essential that parents are given independent and accurate information regarding its risks and benefits.

Most commentaries on private cord banking make note of the fact that many parents will face some pressure (in antenatal classes etc) to bank their baby’s cord when they may not be able to afford it. We are personally aware of families who have faced considerable pressure and urgency to store cord blood and have done so genuinely believing they are doing something in the best interests of their child. Given the dubious benefit of private cord stem cell banking, marketing this service to families with statements such as “Saving your baby’s umbilical cord stem cells could save your baby’s life”, is emotive and misleading.

Indeed the American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that “given the difficulty of making an accurate estimate of the need for autologous transplantation and the ready availability of allogeneic transplantation, private storage of cord blood, as biological insurance, is unwise.”22

In view of these criticisms, expectant parents should be encouraged to seek independent advice before committing to what is an expensive procedure of unknown benefit. Similarly, regulatory authorities need to ensure clarity in the information private cord bank services provide to parents, including audit and detailed reports of the quantity, quality, and usefulness of stored umbilical cord blood. The Haematology Society of New Zealand is presently preparing a written fact sheet which we believe should be freely and readily available to all prospective parents considering storing their child’s cord blood.

Author information: Michael Sullivan, Paediatric Oncologist, Director of Research, Children’s Cancer Research Group, Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Otago, Christchurch; Peter Browett, Haematologist and Director, Haematology, Department of Haematology, Auckland Hospital, Auckland; W Nigel Patton, Haematologist and Director, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Department of Haematology, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch

Correspondence: Dr Michael Sullivan, Department of Paediatrics, Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, PO Box 4345, Christchurch. Fax: 03 364 0747; email michael.sullivan@chmeds.ac.nz