|
 28
September 2005 – Singapore’s only public
cord blood bank was officially opened earlier this morning
by the Minister for Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan. Operational
since the end of December 2004, the Singapore Cord Blood
Bank (SCBB) collects, processes and stores donated umbilical
cord blood which will be made available to anyone who
requires a suitable match for stem cell transplants.
It will serve as a national repository of stem cell
rich umbilical cord blood. This is different from existing
private cord blood banks which store umbilical cord
blood only for the family’s use.
“We mark a new milestone with
the opening of the SCBB. We hope to realise the aim
of providing hope and better outcomes for unfortunate
patients afflicted with lethal blood disorders and cancers,
and to offer cord blood transplantation as yet another
option in our breadth of treatment,” said Professor
Tan Ser Kiat, Chairman of SCBB.
200 to 400 Singaporeans are diagnosed
with blood disorders and cancers annually. Of these,
blood related cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma,
bone marrow failures or dysfunctions and immune disorders
are the top three conditions. Stem-cell rich bone marrow
or umbilical cord blood have been proven for use in
the treatment of these conditions. However, having exhausted
searching for a donor within their own family, 80 to
90 Singaporeans each year still fail to find a suitable
match for bone marrow in the nation’s bone marrow
registry – which has 35,000 registered donors
– or cord blood in public cord blood banks overseas.
“While donated bone marrow has
been the traditional source of stem cells for transplantation,
donors and recipients must be perfectly matched, which
is a great challenge, despite the sheer size of bone
marrow registries. Cord blood donated to a public bank
therefore provides another source of hope. Unfortunately,
public cord blood banks established overseas do not
have samples that match our multi-ethnic profile. So
the logical recourse would be to set up our own public
cord blood bank that would serve our local population,”
observed Dr Fidah Alsagoff, Executive Director, SCBB.
Existing data demonstrates that the
chance of a match for someone searching a bank of 20,000
samples of the same ethnicity is almost 100 per cent.
Hence, the SCBB’s projected stock of 10,000 cord
blood units will provide Singaporeans searching its
registry with up to 80 per cent chance of finding a
match.
Although private cord blood banking
facilities have been in existence in Singapore, current
data indicates that self-banked umbilical cord blood
units are hardly used in stem cell transplants.
“Using unrelated cord blood samples
is preferred by many transplant physicians because firstly,
the child’s own cord blood cannot be used to treat
genetic diseases. Most transplant physicians are also
reluctant to use it to treat leukaemia for reasons which
include the possibility of pre-leukaemic cells being
given back with the transplant. Also as a person's own
immune cells could not fight the leukemia in the first
place, they are unlikely to do so when we transplant
them back into the patient. However, someone else's
immune cells could do the job,” explained Dr William
Hwang, Medical Director, SCBB. Dr Hwang is also a consultant
haematologist and transplant physician at SGH.
Cord blood transplantation is increasingly
becoming the treatment of choice for those with blood
disorders and cancers, especially children. This is
because cord blood stem cells are more immunologically
trainable and have the ability to adapt to another person’s
body more easily, allowing for an easier match and a
significantly lower risk of Graft-vs-Host Disease (GVHD).
The establishment of public cord blood
banks worldwide has improved the likelihood of finding
suitably matched stem cells for needy patients, leading
to an upsurge in the number of cord blood transplants
from unrelated donors. 6,000 of such transplants have
been done worldwide, with 2,000 performed in the last
year alone. In Singapore, more than 30 cord blood transplants
have been done to date, mostly to treat children with
blood cancers such as leukaemia. A vast majority of
these were performed in public hospitals. Cord blood
units for these transplants were obtained from public
cord blood banks in countries such as Australia, Taiwan
and the U.S.
To date, almost 500 umbilical cord
blood units have been stored at the SCBB. This number
is expected to grow as the SCBB ramps up its operations.
It has already expanded its collection base from births
at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH)
to include the National University Hospital (NUH) and
Singapore General Hospital (SGH). Collection from private
hospitals is expected to begin before the end of this
calendar year.
“Parents-to-be will play a vital
role in successfully building up our national life-saving
resource. The more donated umbilical cord bloods we
collect and store, the higher the chance of patients
finding a match at the SCBB. Hence, we’d like
to encourage more parents to donate their baby’s
umbilical cord blood, which would otherwise be discarded
after childbirth,” said Dr Alsagoff.
The SCBB will eventually be internationally
accredited and will be joining the US National Marrow
Donor Programme. This will link the local public cord
blood bank to the network of established and creditable
public cord blood banks worldwide, allowing patients
from other countries to search our registry for a suitable
match. In the spirit of exchange and reciprocity, patients
in Singapore will also be able to tap into the public
cord blood banks in this network. This will go someway
towards meeting the needs of 65 to 80 per cent of Asians
worldwide, who are unable to find a suitable match for
treatment at present.
Parents who wish to find out more about
donating their child’s umbilical cord blood can
visit the www.scbb.com.sg
or contact the SCBB Donor Coordinators at 6394 5011
or info@scbb.com.sg.
About the Singapore Cord Blood
Bank
The Singapore Cord Blood Bank (SCBB) is a not-for-profit
public cord blood banking facility whose mission is
to provide placental cord blood units of high safety
and quality, through the practice of internationally
accredited techniques of collection, processing, banking
and disposition, in order to support cord blood transplantation
and related research in Singapore and around the world.
The SCBB is a joint-venture between the Singapore Health
Services, National Healthcare Group, Children’s
Cancer Foundation and Club Rainbow Singapore. It is
in the process of attaining charity status. More information
can be found at www.scbb.com.sg
For more information and media queries, please do not
hesitate to contact:
Ms Herni Husni
Corporate Communications, SingHealth
Tel: 6557 4950
Mobile: 9792 0394
Email: herniwaty.husni@singhealth.com.sg
|
