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The Life-Saving Treatment That’s Being Thrown in the Trash
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The Life-Saving Treatment That’s Being Thrown in the Trash

Diagnosed with leukaemia in his early 40s, Chris Lihosit was saved by umbilical cord blood from three babies. But why is cord blood banking still the exception rather than the norm?

Bryn Nelson
Mosaic, 2017
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Controversial
  • Scientific
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Bryn Nelson tells the story of a miracle cure that hardly anyone uses. He reports that it’s expensive, that doctors aren’t creating sufficient demand to bring the price down and that insurers aren’t funding it. But why? Since it has numerous potential applications and a sizable body of research supporting its use and it outperforms the alternatives, the lack of popularity is baffling. Whatever the reason, Nelson successfully sells the idea that cord blood shouldn’t just be thrown away. getAbstract recommends his analysis to anyone who loves medical innovation and hates waste.

Take-Aways

  • Doctors have known for many years that umbilical cord blood is a viable alternative to donor bone marrow.
  • Cord blood doesn’t require as close a match between donor and recipient tissue types, enabling ethnic minorities to find a match more easily.
  • Although a single cord contains fewer usable cells than a bone marrow donation, manipulation in the lab boosts the number, allowing it to do the same job.

About the Author

Bryn Nelson is a Seattle-based freelance writer and editor with an interest in biology, biomedicine, ecology and green technology.

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