The conservation of the umbilical cord was by chance, but it has saved the life of a girl. He is now six years old, but just over two years ago, he was about to leave this world for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
At three years he was diagnosed with this disease, which after conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments, was not cured. They thought about the stem cell transplant, but found no compatible donor, so they decided to try a transplant of their own blood that an American clinic had frozen.
They analyzed her in case she had cancerous genes, but since it was not a congenital leukemia, the blood was healthy and after severe chemotherapy to destroy her immune system, she was transplanted to the small one. At 15 days the girl began to produce healthy lymphocytes and today is cured. The multidisciplinary team of scientists and clinical specialists from the USA and Germany that took this case, suggests that it is not generalizable, because not all diseases of this type can be cured in the same way, genetic factors have much to do.
This news published in Pediatrics opens again the debate in our country on the regulation by law of the use of umbilical cord tissues. Unlike in other countries, in Spain they provide that the cords kept in public or private clinics are available to any patient who needs them.
This leads many families to keep the umbilical cord with stem cells abroad, the best known case in our country, that of Infanta Leonor, daughter of the Princes of Asturias.
How do you think the healing of the American girl in Spain will impact? What is your point of view on umbilical cord blood banks?
