CORD BLOOD BANKS
1) NetCord Cord Blood Banks
Increasing success of reported cord blood transplant (CBT) resulted in the establishment of cord blood banks. Their number has been increasing with more than 238,000 units collected and available for unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cell transplant searches (figure 2).
Since umbilical cord blood banking for unrelated transplantation is a relatively new field, it was important to set up standards and to reach an international agreement on aspects that protect the infant donor and the mother and that optimize the chances of finding a suitable donor for the recipient. For this purpose, NetCord was founded in 1998 as a foundation subject to Dutch law having its registered office situated in Leiden (NL) and other branch offices in other countries. Its inventory represents nearly 125,000 cord blood units with immediate availability provided by a total of 23 cord blood banks (figure 1). This cooperative network of large experienced umbilical cord blood banks includes cord blood banks in the USA, Europe, Japan, Australia and lately in Israel and Mexico.
NetCord has established a detailed set of high-quality standards for allogeneic cord blood banking, taking into account respective national and international regulatory aspects in order to develop a rigorous accreditation program, submitted to the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). Furthermore, a joint database in the form of a virtual office employing the most recent Internet technology has been implemented to facilitate rapid allocation of umbilical cord blood units according to the histocompatibility status and the number of nucleated cells of the graft from any transplant center worldwide.
Eurocord works in close collaboration with NetCord banks (87% of units reported to Eurocord), collecting and validating clinical data of patients transplanted with NetCord cord blood units. In order to control the quality of the cord blood units delivered from each NetCord bank, Eurocord sends once a year a statistical analysis of the cord blood units. We also work in close collaboration with European Blood and Marrow Transplant group (EBMT) and Bone Marrow Donors registries in order to collect clinical data on all CBT performed in Europe with cord blood units coming from cord blood banks outside Europe.
How does Eurocord operate with CBB
1- Specific form (CBU characteristics – HLA typing)
2- Validation on site: CBU identity, biological data, HLA typing
3- Statistical analysis once year
4- Clinical data export from Eurocord database (automatic)
5- Copy of patient‘s record for the FACT-Netcord accreditation (automatic printing from data base).
Validation of data submitted to Eurocord by Netcord CB Banks
Düsseldorf CBB October 2007
Comparison of data bases DUCB – Eurocord (n=447)
Clinical analysis on 30/10/2007
Milano CBB December 2006
Number of total CB unit delivered up to November 2006 (n=290)
HLA of pts and donors have been validated on site
Clinical analysis on 22/02/2007
Barcelona CBB December 2007
Number of total CB unit delivered up to December 2007 (n=372)
HLA of pts and donors have been validated on site
Clinical analysis on 31/12/2007
London CBB December 2006
Number of total CB unit delivered up to November 2006 (n=143)
HLA of pts and donors and CB characteristics validated on site
Liège CBB December 2007
Number of total CB unit delivered up to December 2007 (n=101)
HLA of pts and donors have been validated “on site”
Clinical analysis on 19/12/2007
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2) Other Cord Blood Banks
Eurocord also receives reports from cord blood banks other than NetCord, concerning the delivery of units to transplant centers: St. Louis, CRIR, Paramus, Denver, NMDP (USA), Tokai and Nokaido (
). The schedule of collecting and validating the data is the same as for the NetCord Banks. Due to the low number of units (13% of units reported to Eurocord), no statistical analysis is provided to these CBBanks.
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