No. Identifying information is never exchanged between a cord blood donor and a cord blood transplant recipient.

You are not responsible for finding your own donor. If you need an unrelated donor or cord blood transplant, your primary doctor will refer you to an NMDP transplant center. Your transplant center will work with the NMDP to find a donor or cord blood unit for you. In general, we encourage patients and their immediate families to focus their energies on caring for the patient. The NMDP’s ongoing recruitment efforts add nearly 33,000 new donors to the Registry each month.

After your primary doctor refers you to an NMDP transplant center, your transplant center will work with the NMDP to find a donor or cord blood unit for you. Your transplant center will request more tests to see if a potential donor or cord blood unit is a suitable match. Sometimes more testing shows that potential donors or cord blood units do not match you at all the details or markers your center requires. Your transplant center will also look at other information.

A cord blood unit is the term used for the blood collected from the umbilical cord and placenta after a baby is born. Cord blood is rich in blood-forming cells that can be used in transplants for patients with leukemia, lymphoma and many other life-threatening diseases. Cord blood is one of three sources of cells used in transplant; the other two are bone marrow and peripheral (circulating) blood (also called peripheral blood stem cell or PBSC transplants).

When a patient needs a transplant for a life-threatening disease, his or her doctor considers many factors: Should the cells come from the patient (autologous transplant) or from a donor (allogeneic transplant)? The type of transplant used depends on which works best for that disease. Which cell source (bone marrow, peripheral blood, or cord blood) is best for the patient? Each source has advantages and disadvantages. Patients who have a hard time finding a matched bone marrow donor.

It is the blood obtained from the umbilical cord at birth. The cord blood contains stem cells. Stem cells are the cells that make all of the other cells in your body, i.e., heart cells, neural cells, etc. These stem cells continue to reproduce throughout life unless they are destroyed by cancer or blood disease. If your stem cells are destroyed, you will die unless they are replaced by transplant.

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is committed to building a strong network and inventory of high-quality cord blood units available to any patient who needs a transplant. We work with expectant parents and public cord blood banks to increase the number and diversity of cord blood units available for patients. We are also committed to improving transplant results for patients. That is why we are conducting a research study on cord blood transplantation and patient outcomes.

Prior to the 1980's almost all of the incredibly valuable material from umbilical cord blood (CB) was merely discarded after birth. The first CB transplant took place in France in 1988 with many subsequent successful transplants. The hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) derived from CB have been used in place of bone marrow for transplantation to treat a number of diseases including malignancies including certain leukemias, Hodgkin's disease and types of lymphoma.

No. You must have a suitable donor. Most transplant centers will not treat you if you are older than 55 years, one center (Seattle) will accept patients up to the age of 65 years and another (M.D. Anderson) will not use transplantation as first treatment for patients older than 45 years. The chemo and radiation therapy required to destroy your marrow, prior to transplant of healthy marrow, and the drugs used to combat GVHD (graft vs host disease) places unusual stress on heart, lungs and liver.

Yes. At your request, we can provide you with contact information of past patients who are willing to share their experience.

of people who need bone marrow transplants can not find a match. Finding a proper match is especially problematic for African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and people of mixed ethnicity. By banking your baby's stem cells, the odds of having a proper match for the baby or another family member improve.

Donating cord blood is medically safe. Donating poses no health risks to you or your baby. Donating does not affect your baby or your birth experience because the cord blood is collected after your baby is born. If you or your baby experience any complications during delivery, your doctor will not collect the cord blood. There is no cost for donating for public use.

Donating your child's cord blood or storing it for private use is a personal decision that only you can make. If you have a child with leukemia or other disease that may be treatable by transplant and you are pregnant, talk with your oncologist or pediatrician about saving your baby's cord blood. Families may feel a great deal of pressure from the promotions and advertisements they receive from the for-profit private storage cord blood banks.

If you are interested, or someone you know is interested, in donating cord blood, look for a Cord Blood Bank or collecting hospital within or close to your community. There are only a small number of cord blood banks in the United States, so donation to a local bank is not possible in many areas.

Once the donated cord blood is processed and stored at the Cord Blood Bank, it is listed on the NMDP Registry and available to patients all over the world who are searching for a match. The cord blood can be transplanted into any patient whose doctor selects the cord as a match for that patient.

Identifying information is never exchanged between a cord blood donor and cord blood transplant recipient. The identity of the cord blood donor is kept confidential at the cord blood bank.

During pregnancy, the umbilical cord is the lifeline between mother and baby. Once the umbilical cord is discarded after your baby's birth, you lose the chance to preserve the precious stem cells it contains that are an exact match for your child. By preserving your baby's stem cells, he or she will have a guaranteed source of perfectly matched cells in the event a life threatening illness develops and the cells need to be used to combat the disease.

On any given day, more than 6,000 patients, their families and friends around the world are searching the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry for a matching bone marrow donor or cord blood unit. These patients have leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by a bone marrow or cord blood transplant.

Through our Sibling Connection Program in partnership with Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, we strive to provide every expectant family with a child in need of a stem cell transplant with our comprehensive service free of charge. Your child must have an established diagnosis of a disease that is currently treatable with cord blood and meet the other requirements of the program to be eligible to receive ViaCord's cord blood banking and five years of storage services at no cost.

Cord blood specimens are shipped to the transplant facility in a dry cryo-shipper in which a significant layer of insulation is soaked and cooled in liquid nitrogen. This shipper can hold the temperature of liquid nitrogen of -196˚ C for up to five days, but are shipped to the transplant facility by the most timely transportation method available. Thus the samples are maintained in a deep frozen state throughout shipment.

There is no substitute for blood. People are the only source - volunteer donors like yourself. Your pint of blood may save the life of a patient in need.

No. Patients will not be asked about their religious preference nor be given any religious information.

Unfortunately, cord blood collection for public donation can only be accommodated at specified hospitals in limited regional locations. This is primarily due to funding constraints of many public banks. In addition, a lot of families are ineligible for donation for a variety of reasons including family health history, maternal exposure to viruses, and international travel. Hopefully in the future we will see funding sources step forward and help out with significant funding required.