Many parents wonder what the differences are between family cord blood banking and public donation of their newborn’s stem cells. The following comparison table provides a brief view of these two important options.
Questions |
Family Banking |
Public Donation |
Why participate/enroll? |
Family banking guarantees your newborn's sample is preserved for your family members to treat life-threatening diseases. |
Public donation of stem cells increases our national supply of cord blood samples to help save people needing a suitable stem cell match. |
What are the transplant survival rates? |
Survival rates using a relative’s cord blood can be twice as high compared to using an unrelated sample from a public bank |
In general, survival rates using cord blood from an unrelated donor are lower than that of genetically-related cord blood stem cells from a private bank. Complications are significantly increases using un-related stem cells. |
Who is eligible to participate? |
All families worldwide are eligible to participate in Family Banking programs. Typically, only samples that may be HIV positive would be excluded. |
Eligibility is based on the parent’s health history and the existence of a public donation program at the delivering hospital. |
How many hospitals offer cord blood collection? |
Most hospitals in the world offer cord blood collection through a private banking service. |
A limited number of hospitals offer public donation. |
What will happen to my baby's cord blood after it's collected? |
Your baby's cord blood is processed and stored exclusively for future use by your family. |
Eligible donations are processed and stored for use by patients searching for a donor, or are used for research purposes. |
If needed, how long does it take to receive the banked stem cells? |
Family banked samples are available immediately for use and can be released to the patient’s physician quickly. |
By agreeing to donate your baby’s cord blood, there is no guarantee that it will be saved or available to you in the future. |
Does it cost anything to bank cord blood? |
It typically costs between 75,000-90,000 to collect and process your baby's cord blood. Annual storage fees are approximately 3500/year. |
There is no cost to collect and publicly donate your newborn's cord blood. Public banks charge approximately 17.00 lakhs for each sample released for transplant. |
In the Indian scenario, Public blood banks are operative for only collection and separation of blood components which meet the requirements of Hospitals. As on this day, Public Banks catering to stem cells are yet to be implemented in India.
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