 |
|
The following was submitted, "We have my daughter's cord blood stored - my husband has been told he needs a bone marrow transplant but cannot find a match.
My blood type was tested and they said they could tell that from this the cord blood would not be a match (without disturbing it). I have just read on CLL TOPICS that most any cord blood would work - please let me know if you think there is in fact a chance to use it?"
f your husband needs a bone marrow transplant, the usual approach to finding an appropriate donor is to start by testing his brothers and sisters. (Your daughter's cord blood will not be a match for your husband, and it is not true that most any cord blood would work.) If an available sibling does match, this is the preferred donor. If no matched siblings are available, a search for a match in an unrelated donor should be carried out. If a very closely matched donor can be found among registries of volunteers such as in the National Marrow Donor Program, such a donor can be used. Often a very closely matched unrelated donor cannot be found as seems to be the case for your husband since you state that he cannot find a match. In that case, a search for a cord blood product should be made (some transplant physicians actually prefer cord blood units to matched unrelated adult donors). It is likely that an adequately matched cord blood product can be found even if there is no adult donor available since the matching requirements for cord blood units need not be as precise. The search is carried out through the National Marrow Donor Program and all transplant physicians know how to conduct such a search.
Some transplant physicians are not experienced in cord blood transplants and are reluctant to use them, but the results with cord blood transplants are about as good as with those done with adult donors. (If your husband's physician needs further information about this point, recommend he or she visit this website.
No patient should be told that he cannot have a transplant for lack of a donor unless a search for a matched cord blood product has been done!
If your husband has a malignant blood disease such as leukemia, the search should be carried out urgently before the disease has a chance to progress. If cord blood transplants are not done in your local medical center, see the list of transplant centers that do cord blood transplants on this website.