CHICAGO - The advertising makes it hard for parents-to-be to say no. Pay us to bank your child's umbilical cord blood, they urge, because someday she, or another relative, may need it. | MyPantagraph: Healthy Living Group

"The first and most important investment in your baby's future health," counsels CorCell. "Your love and cord blood are two of nature's most powerful protectors," assures FamilyCord. "Years from now, the cute outfits won't fit … the stem cells will!" jokes NeoCells.

More than 70 diseases, from childhood leukemias to sickle cell anemia, can be treated with cord blood stem cells, the companies note. And research into new ways to use them is promising, including work on spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries and diabetes.

But talk to physicians who treat children and often you'll hear a different story.

"I think people are paying for nothing," said Dr. Eliane Gluckman, president of the European School of Haematology and the physician who did the world's first cord blood transplant in 1988.

While it can't hurt to save umbilical cord blood, which otherwise would be tossed as medical waste, many experts say the private cord banks are selling a costly service aimed at a scenario that is unlikely ever to happen.

Treated in other ways

The diseases that cord blood stem cells may help are rare, and they frequently are treated in other ways, doctors said. If a transplant is recommended, they said, a match is nearly always found in the global public donor program, which has 400,000 units of cord blood banked.

Even if a child does have her cord blood stored, physicians wouldn't use it to treat her if she developed, say, sickle cell anemia. The blood would contain the same genetic defect.

At the same time, the banking service isn't cheap, running between $1,000 to more than $2,000 for shipping and processing and then another $100 or so a year for storage of the frozen stem cells.

"I didn't consider doing it for my kids," said Dr. Steven Joffe, a pediatric stem cell transplant physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. "And that was after I had begun to work in this field."

Joffe surveyed 93 fellow pediatric stem cell transplant doctors five years ago and found most agreed with him. Joffe published his results in March in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. That group advises doctors to "discourage" parents from privately banking cord blood, unless there is an ill sibling who might need the cells.

Most private cord blood banks acknowledge current uses for the cells are limited, though they cite cases of families who were grateful to be able to use banked cord blood to help a relative.

But "you don't do it for any one disease," said David Zitlow, spokesman for one of the largest and oldest cord blood banks in the world, Cord Blood Registry. It has banked 285,000 units of cord blood.

You do it, he said, because of the rapid progress of medical research.

"If you believe in science, there are 70 diseases being treated now - do you believe there will be 100 10 years from now?" said Calvin Cole, vice president of North America for StemCyte, a large cord blood bank that handles both private customers and public donations. "It is proven it is saving lives."

Cord blood is medically valuable because it is rich in stem cells, which can divide to create more specialized cells. Cells from cord blood can be used, for example, to build new blood and a new immune system in a person suffering from blood cancer. Scientists are looking into whether the cells can also develop into forms that would be helpful for diabetes and other conditions.

Dr. Jennifer Willert, a pediatric oncologist specializing in blood and marrow transplants at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, is among the doctors who support private and public banking of cord blood. "The potential for regenerative medicine is significant," Willert said.

Banked cord blood, both public and private, is especially valuable for minority children and those of mixed ethnicities, who have a harder time finding a match in the public system, she said. "It might be the only chance they have to have a product that will match them."

Donations encouraged

Everyone who spoke to the Chicago Tribune for this story, including representatives of private banks, said donation of cord blood to the public system should be encouraged. Donation helps ensure people who fall ill with rare diseases have access to lifesaving stem cells.

"The reality is most of the population have not banked their cord blood, so there needs to be a public system," said Jim Corbett, president of ViaCord, another large cord blood bank with 200,000 units banked. "I think it warrants greater public funding and the two models can coexist."

Donation of cord blood is free, with processing and storage fees picked up by the federal government. Locally, ITxM handles public donations at dozens of hospitals, storing 6,000 units in its facility in Glenview, said Angela Hlavacek, clinical manager for ITxM. Between 50 and 60 units are released each year for transplants around the world, she said.

Rhesha Craigen of Roselle is one who benefited from the public program. Craigen waited a year for a match after she suffered a relapse of leukemia, then finally got the call that a cord blood unit had been found for her in Italy.

"I was in my bedroom folding some laundry and I literally almost passed out," said Craigen, who is African-American.

Undergoing the transplant, Craigen remembers thinking about the little boy in Italy whose blood cells were flowing into her body.

Craigen's voice filled with emotion as she spoke about what that donation meant to her. "I got to see my daughter graduate from high school. I get to see her go to college," she said. "All because of that one act of kindness."