Rhonda Kottke owes her life to two little babies.
Doctors used the newborns' umbilical cord blood to treat Kottke's leukemia, and the Chicago woman has been cancer-free for 4½ years.
Umbilical cord blood usually is discarded, along with the rest of the afterbirth. But the American Academy of Pediatrics is urging parents to donate to public cord blood banks.
More than 5,500 such transplants have treated life-threatening diseases such as leukemia and immune-system disorders.
Each month, about 300 Chicago area babies donate to a blood bank, where cord blood is stored at minus 320 degrees. There's no risk to mother or baby.
"It's his first charitable act," said his mother, Sharon Silberg.
But fewer than 5 percent of Chicago area babies donate. Glenview-based ITXM Cord Blood Services hopes to increase collections to 375 donations a month.
ITXM is one of 18 cord blood banks storing cord blood from 48,000 babies. The federal goal is 150,000 units. Blood banks say they especially need donations from blacks and other minorities.
Before undergoing a cord blood transplant, a recipient typically gets high-dose chemotherapy or radiation. This destroys diseased blood cells as well as healthy ones. The patient then gets an infusion of cord blood stem cells, which develop into replacement blood cells.
Such patients also could be treated with stem cells from the bone marrow of adult donors. But cord blood transplants offer certain advantages.
Cord blood is less likely to contain infectious diseases. And in cases where there are not optimal matches, the immune cells from donated cord blood are less likely to attack the patient, said Dr. James Nachman, a University of Chicago pediatric oncologist.
That's what happened in Kottke's transplant. Kottke, 34, was diagnosed with AML leukemia in late 2001 and underwent a cord blood transplant.
"Without a cord blood donation, I probably wouldn't be here," she said.
