What is Cordlife (Cord Blood Banking)?
Cordlife refers to a private, for-profit cord blood banking company that stores umbilical cord blood for potential future autologous (personal) or directed family use, typically marketed as "biological insurance" for families. 1
Understanding Cord Blood Banking Models
There are two distinct types of cord blood banking services:
Public Cord Blood Banks
- Collect, process, and store cord blood for public use by any patient worldwide who needs a stem cell transplant 1
- Funded by organizations like the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Marrow Donor Program, American Red Cross, or academic institutions 1
- Free for families to donate 2
- Units are searchable and available to unrelated recipients 3
- Over 400,000 units stored in more than 100 quality-controlled public banks worldwide 3
- Have released approximately 30 times more units for actual therapy compared to private banks 4
Private Cord Blood Banks (Like Cordlife)
- Charge significant upfront and annual storage fees not covered by insurance 2
- Store cord blood exclusively for the donor child or family members 1
- Not searchable or available to the public 3
- Over 780,000 units stored in more than 130 private banks worldwide 3
- Significantly underused for actual treatment compared to public banks 2
- Less regulated for quality control than public banks 2, 5
Clinical Reality and Evidence
Proven Medical Uses
Cord blood transplantation is curative for specific serious diseases including: 1
- Malignancies (leukemias, lymphomas)
- Bone marrow failure syndromes
- Hemoglobinopathies (sickle cell disease, thalassemia)
- Immunodeficiencies
- Inborn errors of metabolism
Survival rates: 75-90% for sibling HLA-matched transplants and 40-80% for unrelated cord blood transplants 1
Critical Limitations of Private/Autologous Banking
The American Academy of Pediatrics explicitly states that private cord blood banking should be discouraged for routine use because: 1
- No scientific data currently supports autologous cord blood banking 1
- The likelihood of a child needing their own stored cord blood ranges from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 200,000 1
- Most conditions that might benefit from cord blood stem cells already exist in the infant's cord blood (premalignant changes) 1
- No evidence of safety or effectiveness for autologous cord blood transplantation in treating malignancies 1
- Evidence shows DNA mutations present in cord blood from children who later develop leukemia, making autologous transplantation potentially contraindicated 1
Important Caveats About Marketing
Conflict of Interest Concerns
- Physicians, employees, or consultants of private banks may have financial conflicts of interest in recruiting patients 1
- Families are vulnerable to emotional marketing at the time of childbirth 1
- Private banks make unsubstantiated claims promising to "insure" infants against future serious illnesses 1
When Private Banking IS Appropriate
Directed cord blood banking should be encouraged only when: 1
- There is a full sibling with a known medical condition (malignant or genetic) that could potentially benefit from cord blood transplantation
- The family is enrolled in an NIH program specifically for sibling donor collection 1
Regulatory and Quality Standards
- Public banks must meet stringent national accreditation standards 1
- All banked cord blood should be tested for infectious diseases and hereditary hematologic diseases 1
- Collection requires institutional review board-approved protocols and informed parental consent 1
- Private banks are underregulated compared to public banks 2, 5
Official Recommendation
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that cord blood donation should be encouraged for PUBLIC banking, not private banking like Cordlife. 1 Private storage as "biological insurance" should be discouraged given the lack of scientific support, extremely low probability of use, and ready availability of allogeneic (public bank) transplantation. 1