Thousands and thousands of pregnant girls get the pitch via their OB-GYN: Put a little bit of your new child’s umbilical wire on ice, as a biological insurance coverage. In case your youngster sooner or later faces most cancers, diabetes and even autism, the dear stem cells within the wire blood might develop into a tailored treatment.
Many households are blissful to pay for the peace of mind of a wholesome future. Greater than two million umbilical wire samples sit in a handful of suburban warehouses throughout the nation. It’s a profitable enterprise, with corporations charging a number of thousand {dollars} upfront plus tons of extra yearly thereafter. The business has grown quickly, bolstered by investments from medical gadget corporations, hospital partnerships and endorsements from celebrities like Drew Barrymore and Chrissy Teigen.
However the main banks have constantly misled clients and medical doctors concerning the know-how’s promise, an investigation by The New York Occasions discovered. Docs hardly ever use wire blood anymore, because of advances which have made it simpler to transplant grownup stem cells. And the few dad and mom who attempt to withdraw wire blood samples usually discover that they’re unusable — both as a result of their quantity is simply too low or they’ve been contaminated with microbes.
When the primary wire blood banks opened three a long time in the past, medical doctors have been optimistic about turning the stem cells, in any other case discarded as medical waste, into a strong new therapy for sufferers with leukemia and different blood problems. Non-public banks promised peace of thoughts for anxious parents-to-be, understanding the cells could be prepared and ready if their youngster ever bought sick.
That potential has not materialized. Simply 19 stem-cell transplants utilizing a baby’s personal wire blood have been reported since 2010, in response to the Heart for Worldwide Blood and Marrow Transplant Analysis. Newer analysis has led many medical doctors to desert wire blood in favor of grownup stem cells.
