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To: Vegas who wrote (25186)	12/9/1998 9:52:00 PM
From: brent gephart	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 119973

The American Health Network has been talking about Cord Blood Research for months.

To: Vegas who wrote (25186)	12/9/1998 9:58:00 PM
From: Gregg Sterner	Respond to of 119973

Just sent this to CNBC...from UPI today..URL from Vegas..thanks. Scientists grow umbilical cord cells 12/8/98 9:26 a.m. EST MIAMI (UPI) - Researchers say they've hit on a way to grow in a laboratory umbilical cord blood cells for use in bone marrow transplants. They say the technique holds promise for those with leukemia, non- Hodgkin's lymphoma and several types of cancer. Like bone marrow, umbilical cord blood contains the so-called "mother cells" that can endlessly produce the cells the body needs to fight disease. But unlike mature marrow cells, umbilical cord cells have not learned to identify with a particular host. Therefore, they're more adaptable in transplants and do not require a perfect donor match. One main drawback to using umbilical cord cells, however, is that doctors have had a hard time producing enough of them to use in adult patients. But Monday at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Miami, researchers from the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., and Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J., shared developments that may enable doctors to increase the supply. The scientists said four of 10 patients receiving umbilical cord cells grown in a laboratory responded favorably and were currently disease-free. Lead researcher Dr. Patrick Stiff, of Loyola's Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, called the developments "encouraging, especially considering that all the patients in the study had advanced disease and were otherwise unlikely to survive." Among the findings outlined at the meeting were that a perfect umbilical donor match is not necessary for a successful transplant. Donated umbilical cord blood cells are frozen and stored in banks throughout the world. Also, the engraftment rate, the rate at which newly transplanted cells begin functioning as part of he immune system _ was about the same for the adults receiving the laboratory-grown cells as it had been for children who undergo bone marrow transplantation and are generally much more tolerant of any new cells. The automated technology used to cultivate the umbilical cord cells was developed by Michigan-based Aastrom Biosciences Inc. For every five adults who develop leukemia, four are expected to die because they are either too old to undergo bone marrow transplantation or cannot find a matching donor. Stiff said: "The ability to increase the supply of umbilical cord cells in the laboratory will significantly enhance physicians' ability to treat leukemia and lymphoma in adults who have no related or unrelated marrow donor." "In fact," he added, "umbilical cord cells may even prove more desirable and effective than marrow cells from unrelated donors."