How is Cord Blood different than Bone Marrow?

• Donation of cord blood is safe and painless.
• Cord blood can be frozen and saved until used.
• Bone marrow has to be donated and used within hours of harvesting.
• There is a lower risk of graft vs. host disease when cord blood is used.
• Successful outcome rates are similar for both bone marrow and cord blood.
• Cord blood has 10x the stem cells than marrow.
• It is believed that stem cells found in cord blood have greater regenerative properties because they are younger than bone marrow.
• Getting the cord blood transplant to the patient can be much faster. Once a registry match is found, the fully tested and frozen cord blood just needs to be delivered to the patient’s hospital. To receive a bone marrow transplant the matching donor would need to be contacted, re-consent to be a donor, still be physically able to complete the process and agree to be hospitalized to undergo a bone marrow harvest that would need to be tested pre-transplant.
• Bone marrow is a larger harvest. Currently, the smaller cord blood donations are used for treating children and adolescents. Research is underway to create combined donations to treat adults.
• A bone marrow donor can give more than once, however there is only one opportunity to donate a baby’s cord blood.