Need advice, low cell count in cord blood - kind of long

Hi guys,
If anyone here knows a lot about cord blood banking, I would really appreciate your input.
We just got a letter from viacord stating that there was a

"low total nucleated cell count of 95 million. Based upon published medical literature, ViaCord has determined that cord blood units containing less than 100 million nucleated cells may be unlikely to be useful for clinical transplantation under current clinical practice. It is unknown however, given stem cell expansion technology and other future possilbe innovations, whether future uses ofor the cells will be possible."

So, now I have to decide if I want to continue to bank the cells and continue paying $$$, or discard the cells or donate them to research.

My gut says to continue banking - 95 million doesn't seem sooo far off from 100 million, and who knows what scientific breakthroughs will happen. If I didn't continue, I'd definitely donate them to research. I was wondering if anyone else was in this situation, and WWYD. Also if anyone is a Dr or scientist, I'd love your input.

sorry so long. TIA

Re: Need advice, low cell count in cord blood - kind of long

Not a scientist or doctor, but personally, I would continue to bank until I had my second kid, bank that kid's cord blood, make sure that he/she is healthy, and then stop kid #1's cord blood banking (unless 95 million is OK at that future time). I don't think the cost is too much to continue banking ($100-$150/yr). Are they going to refund you some of that $2K? If they are then I might think differently.

Re: Need advice, low cell count in cord blood - kind of long

There is research being done about replicating stem cells. So, they might someday be able to make exact copies of what you have. Even the "normal" amount in cord blood is not enough for transplantation in an adult, or at least I believe that to be the case most of the time. So those of us who are banking cord blood are not in a totally different position from yours.

That's a really tough decision .

Re: Need advice, low cell count in cord blood - kind of long

Thanks for your replies.
Yes, we would be refunded the $ we already paid minus a $300 fee.
I didn't know that the normal amount wasn't enough for transplantation in an adult.
I honestly didn't do enough research - I just immediately thought that if Gd forbid DD or a future child we have needed it someday and didn't bank it, I'd never forgive myself, so we signed up.
I'm leaning towards continuing. DH was REALLY upset when we go the letter yesterday, more than I was.

Re: Need advice, low cell count in cord blood - kind of long

I am not sure what to say...

I was all registered to do this. But when I had my csection, my dr told me I did not have enough blood in the cord to do it,that he knows what they need and it wasnt enough. So...based on that, I am not sure what i would do if I were you. I would keep paying I guess so I can't ever say coulda, shoulda, woulda, but that is ONLY if you arent going broke doing so.

Message edited 3/4/2010 3:06:03 PM.

Re: Need advice, low cell count in cord blood - kind of long

Both my babies didn't have enough cells. They didn't give us a number, but they called and told us that they were very low numbers and didn't recommend storage. THey said it was because DC were so small when they were born. I was really bummed but decided not to spend the money.
Hopefully when we have our next DC there will be enough.
I feel that there IS so much potential in this area that donor cells will become a very viable option. For a lot of things that stem cells treat and will hopefully treat in the future - one couldn't even use his or her own cells. For example leukemia - you wouldn't to a stem cell transplant with the patient's own cells because those cells would have the potential to develop the leukemia.
I don't know if this makes sense, but for reasons like that i decided the money would be better spent on something else rather than an insufficient amount of cells.