State encouraged to adequately fund initiative

NMDP Applauds California Legislation to Expand Cord Blood Collection

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) announced its support of two bills passed in the California State legislature and signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger that expand opportunities for pregnant women to donate umbilical cord blood for public use.

Bills SB962 and AB34 will help increase the number of cord blood units donated through public cord blood banks that participate in the NMDP Registry. Through its role as the operator of the C. W. Bill Young Stem Cell Transplantation Program, the NMDP manages the world’s largest registry of donated cord blood units and adult marrow donors.

Each day more than 6,000 men, women and children with leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases search the NMDP Registry hoping to find a match; for many of these patients, a transplant may be the best and only treatment option. These patients turn to the NMDP because they do not have a matched donor within their family (most often a sibling who could donate marrow or cord blood).

“Thanks to these bills, more California mothers will be able to donate cord blood and offer hope to patients in desperate need of a cord blood or marrow transplant,” said Michael Boo, NMDP strategic development officer. “We hope other states will follow California in its commitment to expand the publicly available cord blood units accessible through the NMDP Registry.”

As the National Cord Blood Coordinating Center, the NMDP works with a network of public cord blood banks to increase the number and diversity of cord blood units available and to educate expectant parents. This network includes two public cord blood banks in California:

• StemCyte International Cord Blood Center
• Children's Hospital of Orange County Cord Blood Bank

NMDP sees the potential of this framework to allow the residents in California to be able to have a meaningful opportunity to publicly donate their cord blood unit if they so wish. It will be critical that as the California program is designed, funding is provided to make this opportunity a reality.

Learn more:

• About cord blood donation and ways to donate
• About the need for cord blood donors and bone marrow donors
• About how the NMDP helps patients who need a transplant