Treatment for Leukemia; An Increasing Cause of Death Through Stem Cells Collected from Umbilical Cord

Abstract

Cancer is a serious public health issue burden faced worldwide leading to millions of deaths yearly. This involves the abnormal growth of cells which proliferate uncontrollably and spreads to the other sites of the body by metastasis which is referred to as the Cancer stage IV. This can be formed in different parts of the body where the treatment is provided targeting the particular site by identifying the site of origin but still there is no effective treatment method to completely cure the disease while the available treatment methods possess serious side effects. Moreover, Leukemia is a blood cancer which is more difficult in target treatment hence Umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) is expected to be a good treatment method. Since the first UCBT, their use has been increasing with the establishment of several cord blood banks worldwide with thousands of transplants yearly for adults as well as children. Hence, this review focus on providing with an insight on UCBT as an effective treatment method for Leukemia which is a more difficulty facing cancer in targeting site for treatment. Infusion of double-cord blood units, intrabone infusion and ex-vivo culture of cord blood is expected to increase the cell number which can overcome the problem of reduced cord blood cell count. Also, the different methods of conducting UCBT and the challenges along with its current status and future aspects are discussed.