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The Beginning

In 2005, Dr. Virro, a Toronto-area Obstetrician, keenly watched as the United States developed its plan for a National Public Cord Blood Program. George W. Bush was in power at that time and, in his efforts to curtail the use of embryonic stem cells, had turned his attention to umbilical cord blood stem cells as an alternative therapy. In 2004 he commissioned the Institute of Medicine, IOM, to prepare a report for congress that outlined its recommendations for a US public cord blood banking system.  At the same time, Canadian Hematologists attending a Toronto conference were strongly supporting the need for a public banking system in Canada. It came quickly apparent that few Canadian politicians had knowledge of cord blood stem cells let alone plans to develop a national public system.  The Quebec government funded a new public bank in 2004 through HemaQuebec in Montreal but it would take two years for them to build a cord blood processing facility and be ready to accept samples.   Alberta’s public cord blood bank had lost most of its funding and was unsuccessful in securing financing. Canadian parents who wanted to donate their baby’s cord blood had nowhere to turn. Worse yet, transplant physicians could not find treatment for their sick patients and people were dying while looking for cord blood samples.

At the same time, Dr. Virro noted that some parents giving birth at his hospital were choosing to store their cord blood for family use at a family bank, Cells for Life. However, there were many who did not and their cord blood was being discarded in the biological waste bins. In North America, almost 4 million umbilical cords were being throw away while thousands and thousands of sick patients were dying trying to find cord blood for treatment.

WHERE DID THE NAME COME FROM?

In 2001, Mrs. Patrizia Durante was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 27 weeks into her first pregnancy in Montreal. Prior to the delivery of her baby, Patrizia had the foresight to ask her doctors to collect and store her child’s umbilical cord blood. Patrizia endured 213 blood transfusions, 9 bone marrow biopsies, radiation and chemotherapy. After a two-month remission, her leukemia was back. Doctors searched for a matching bone marrow donor but none could be found. When doctors told her she would die, Patrizia reminded them that they could use the cord blood. A five-minute transfusion of the cord blood was all it took. Within two months, her blood showed signs of improvement. Patrizia is now cured  and her 8-year old daughter, Victoria Angel, is a happy and healthy girl. Dr. Virro named the public cord blood bank Victoria Angel Registry of Hope to honour this remarkable family and underline the potential of umbilical cord blood stem cells to help treat disease.

FUNDING:

Dr. Virro knew that funding a public bank was an expensive endeavor. Government funding was not available due, in part, to a lack of political knowledge and frequent changes to the Health Minister and his staff. A logical alliance was formed with a family cord blood bank called Cells for Life (CFL).  Cells for Life operated an AABB-accredited facility and had the experience and knowledge to help with the public banking activities. Cells for Life was also willing to dedicate a portion of its profits to pay for the collection, processing, storage and medical testing as required.  The original idea quickly took shape and Victoria Angel Registry of Hope (VAR) became a reality in 2005. VAR has applied for charitable status and has had several meetings with Ontario’s Ministry of Health to secure grants or financing; no funds have yet been directed to this cause although the current administration is becoming more educated and interested.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Victoria Angel Registry of Hope provides education to pregnant parents who wish to donate their cord blood. Those parents who pass the application screening process are provided with a collection kit that is used by the physician/ midwife at birth to collect the cord blood. The collected blood is sent to the Cells for Life laboratory at Toronto General Hospital. VAR is committed to building an inventory of high-quality cord blood units to provide the best possible result for sick patients and thus operates according to the current standards set for public cord blood banks world-wide. Samples that meet the established criteria for medical use are stored and HLA typed; samples that do not are either delegated to research projects or are discarded. At many public banks, only 15 – 20% of all donated samples meet the criteria and are stored.  

OUR MISSION:

Victoria Angel Registry of Hope Public Cord Blood Bank is committed to informing pregnant parents and health professionals about the option of cord blood donation so that donated cord blood stem cells can be used in the medical treatment of sick patients or to promote stem cell research around the world.

ACTIVITIES:

Since 2005, VAR has dispensed hundreds of cord blood collection kits to parents who have volunteered to donate their cord blood.  Almost 200 tissue-typed samples are ready for release to transplant physicians and/ or cancer treatment centres.  In addition, hundreds of units that did not meet the standards for medical treatment were donated to much-needed research projects.  With funding, operations can be ramped up immediately and would result in many more available samples for medical use and for research.  The laboratory has the capacity to store ~125,000 units.

Victoria Angel Registry of Hope is registered with the World Marrow Donor Association. Several requests for treatment samples have been received. To date, samples in inventory have not matched the required tissue type of those sick patients.

CANADA AS PART OF THE WORLD WIDE PUBLIC BANK COMMUNITY

George W. Bush’s national public bank system was established and is working well to provide an easy and efficient system for transplant physicians to access high-quality cord blood treatment samples in the USA. Researchers have access to cord blood for their projects so that new treatments can be developed. The US is focused on increasing the inventory of samples so that all ethnic groups have access to treatment.

Canada is far behind the rest of the world in the field of public cord blood banking.  According to the 2008 report by the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), there are over 450,000 cord blood samples stored in 112 public banks in 52 different countries.  Most of these countries, including USA, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Mexico and the UK, have established public cord blood programs. However, Canada’s total inventory of transplant-grade public samples is less than 1,500. Only one public bank is funded; Quebec funds HemaQuebec’s public cord blood bank.

CORD BLOOD USE:

Thousands of successful transplants are done each year to treat over 70 different diseases. Cord blood is the treatment of choice for many physicians treating leukemia; there are fewer complications, less incidence of rejection and better survival rates.  Transplant numbers are increasing by 25 – 30% every year.  The number of two-cord transplants used to treat adults has increased by 54% since 2006. 

In 2008 alone, Canadian transplant doctors received 86 samples from WMDA-related banks at a cost of $30,000 US per sample.  The Canadian health care system paid over $2.5 million for cord blood samples. In contrast, at the same time, Australia’s three public banks, with an inventory of ~20,000 samples, released 178 samples. This brought them almost $7 million in revenue in 2008 alone. Similarly, France has an overall inventory of 7,051 publicly accessible samples in four public banks. In 2008, 212 samples were released for medical treatment; 138 stayed in France to treat its own citizens. This clearly shows that high inventory numbers are not necessary to make an impact.

OUR HOPE:

Our hope is that all Canadian parents will soon recognize that they have an important decision to make about their newborn’s cord blood collection and storage. When pregnant parents arrive at the hospital for birth, they will have a collection kit in hand either for family banking or for public banking. Few umbilical cords will end up in the medical waste. A strong cord blood banking system made up of both family and public banks is necessary to educate Canadian parents about their options, to ensure that sick patients receive medical care in a timely manner and to provide the necessary research samples so scientists may make further advances in this field.