Cord Blood Coordinating Center Contract Summary

The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 (Stem Cell Act 2005), Public Law 109-129, creates the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program (Program). The Program was authorized to help more patients have a successful cord blood or bone marrow transplant (also called a BMT). The Cord Blood Coordinating Center is one of four components of the Program.

A cord blood or bone marrow transplant replaces a patient's diseased cells with healthy blood-forming cells. These cells can come from the marrow of a donor or the umbilical cord blood that is collected after a baby is born.

The blood-forming cells from cord blood have unique qualities that might help patients who would otherwise be unable to have a life-saving transplant.

According to the contract, the Cord Blood Coordinating Center will:

• Work with cord blood banks to recruit more expectant parents to donate umbilical cord blood. Special emphasis will be on parents of racially or ethnically diverse backgrounds. This includes creating educational materials for the public and health care professionals.
• Coordinate a network of organizations that work together to provide safe cord blood transplants. This includes defining standards and ensuring they are followed by organizations in the network and adding cord blood banks to the network that meet those standards.
  
  Organizations in the network include:
  • Public cord blood banks for processing and storing cord blood units.
  • Cooperative registries (which are registries in other countries having agreements with the Cord Blood Coordinating Center) for identifying cord blood units and marrow donors located outside of the United States. 
  • Transplant centers (which are hospitals with an experienced transplant team) for taking care of patients who receive a bone marrow or cord blood transplant. 
• Administer the Related Donor Cord Blood Program through which a baby’s umbilical cord blood can be collected after birth and may be used to treat a biological sibling or parent with a diagnosed disease.
  
  
  • This 3-year demonstration project, authorized by the Stem Cell Act 2005, was developed jointly by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Cord Blood Coordinating Center.
  • Eligible families can have their baby’s umbilical cord blood unit collected and stored at no charge. When the stored cord blood unit is used for transplant, a fee will be charged to the patient’s insurance company.
• Provide an efficient information system for collecting samples and identifying and matching tissue types through one electronic system (Single Point of Access). This includes:
  • Maintaining a national Registry of cord blood units, including units from the National Cord Blood Inventory.
  • Identifying and, if requested, reserving a cord blood unit that matches a patient’s tissue type. This includes cord blood units from the National Cord Blood Inventory.
  • Providing more testing for tissue type and infectious diseases of cord blood units being considered for transplant.
• Work closely with the Office of Patient Advocacy to provide educational information for patients, the public, and medical professionals and to help patients throughout the transplant process. This includes:
  • Allowing patients and doctors to electronically explore the possibility of finding a marrow donor or cord blood unit.
  • Searching worldwide for all sources of cells through one electronic system.
  • Providing updates of the search progress to patients, doctors and transplant centers.
• Ensure outcomes data for transplants using umbilical cord blood units are collected and provided for research.
• Ensure patient and donor confidentiality throughout the search and transplant process and when providing outcomes and research data.
• Plan for public health emergencies requiring cord blood transplants.