Leukemias : the gift can start as early as birth

icefront/epictura

Published the 20.10.2017 at 15: 00

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marrow osseuseleucémiedon marrow

The cord blood transplant is still the star among the specialists in blood cancers such as acute leukemias. These diseases do have their bad reputation from the brutality of their appearance, in the absence of special signs at the beginning and, especially, in the past, the gravity of the prognosis. However, it is rather a message of hope that each year is affirmed ; the cord blood is a rich untapped in France.

An invasion by cells crazy

Acute leukemia is summarized in the presence of large quantities of cells gone mad in the bloodstream. It is at the level of the bone marrow (and not the spinal cord) that produce the white blood cells, soldiers of the assault. These white blood cells destroy the thousands of germs that attack us on a daily basis, without being aware of this. When a mother cell that produces these soldiers, becomes ” mad “, that is to say, cancer, it is the whole regiment who bears the mark and is unable to perform the work. Worse, he attacks his own country !

Chemotherapy is not discriminating

Treatment by chemotherapy is to kill these malignant cells, but the medicine is not yet of sufficient accuracy and often does not remove the enemy, but also healthy cells, making the patient susceptible to any infection during treatment. The bone marrow transplant, so the intake after the chemotherapy to healthy cells, came to significantly improve the prognosis. The transplantation of a marrow of healthy allow you to pass the critical phase and to restart a new life with a new marrow bone… subject to finding a donor with marrow that is compatible. The compatibility is determined by genetics, and we can find a cord that is compatible, either in the family (brothers and sisters), or through a registry of volunteer donors. The problem is that we are all very different, and that even in the world, the registry does not always find a compatible donor.

Bone marrow donation

To give his bone marrow is a gesture as important as donating organs after death. The difference, essential, is that this gift is made during the lifetime of the donor, and that it is without harmful consequences on their health. A blood test is enough to be registered in the registry. That a sick person in the world is compatible with your spinal cord and the coordination body will call upon your generosity to take the sample, who is in the hospital and often performed under general anesthesia. So this is not a decision unimportant, even if the probability of being called is low. It should, however, be taken into account, and this slows down the momentum of generosity. Therefore, the world is a shortage of donor…

The umbilical cord blood

The specialists have devised a different strategy : to have recourse to the blood contained in the umbilical cord that connects the mother to her baby during pregnancy. It contains cells-mothers of very successful, at one stage very primitive-like amazement to the cells of the bone marrow. And most importantly, still little differentiated, these cells are compatible with all the world ! And they are eager to continue their production of blood cells, when injected in a recipient. The cord can be taken at the time of delivery, without any consequence for the mother and her unborn baby, since it is normally destroyed. It can be stored in a public bank in France, with all the ethical safeguards and regulatory, which is not necessarily the case elsewhere.

Professor Mohamad Mohty, hôpital Saint-Antoine in Paris, one of our best specialists of this technique, launches an appeal : “These cancers were until the arrival of the transplant often incurable. This is no longer the case ! It is necessary to deploy all efforts to encourage the donation, including that of cord blood “. His optimism, however, must be modulated : the cord blood transplant, according to the latest report of the agency of biomedicine, which is a bit dated, currently covers 22 % of the grafts 200 a year on average. Even if we doubled the number of cord blood banks, France had only about 16 000 samples stored, so that there are approximately 800,000 births each year in France.

The website of the agency of biomedicine

www.dondesangdecordon.fr