CBA Florida Inc. (fka CBAI)

[MrLong]

Dr. John Wagner from Univ. of Minn and CORD:USE on record! "Expansion Technology" know-how dilemna for perhaps public banks... you decide.

CORD:USE/Cryo-Save
"Double Cord" allogeneic
unrelated UCB expansion for transplants

vs

CBAI/CordLife/HCA/BCBS?
"Cytomatrix" autologous
4x UCB expansion for transplants

-BCBS you have all those darn transplant centers... Are you onboard with HCA?

-HCA and BCBS contribute funds for the foreign doctors to become nurses in the USA at HCA's Florida Medical University. Heidelberg (HCA) is the German Medical School with a connection to German Red Cross and we have VITA 34 owned in part by BCBS. I think HCA and BCBS are together but need more info. Thoughts, too close to call?

((This sparring match has been ongoing since 04' and I think CordLife Ltd/HCA/CBAI have a knock-out blow! You decide.Experts from the UCB Unrelated Donor side are including family-related because the 'Holy Grail' has been discovered and HCA has it: Cytomatrix autologous family-related VCAMM UCB expansion technology.))

Current Donor Selection
The way in which Fred Hutchinson currently considers donor options is “actually quite complex,” Dr. Appelbaum explained. “But a simplified version is that we generally prioritize:
1)matched related donors,
2)matched unrelated donors,
3)cord blood, and then
4)mismatched related [donors].”

Dr. Wagner of CORD:USE said that for patients with acute leukemia, physicians generally try to determine early after diagnosis:
1)whether an 8/8 HLA-matched related donor exists within the family,
2)and in many cases will begin an unrelated search shortly thereafter.
3)Most cancer centers will wait several months to see if an HLA matched unrelated donor can be identified.

((How many want cancer growing in them for several months waiting for an unrelated donor to turn up on the registry? Is that preferred?))

Based on their own center’s experience (CORD:USE) and the data published in the Lancet Oncology, Dr. Wagner and his colleagues (Dr. Kurtzberg) immediately search the cord blood banks internationally even if other options are also available.

The more urgent the transplant, the more time physicians might not want to expend on finding unrelated donors, making cord blood the next reasonable option, said Dr. Stiff. “The size of the patient should also be considered,” he added. A large patient will require more stem cells, and because cord blood contains a fixed amount of these cells, it may not be the best option.

((That was until CordLife Ltd + VCAMM + HCA = $$$ from Cytomatrix treatments.))

Potential Solution
Dr. Wagner said that if mortality after UCB transplant is frequently related to inadequate stem cell numbers, physicians need to figure out how to increase these counts.

((Minority groups according to Natalie Curry's interview last night have a problem with INADEQUATE UCB STEM CELL NUMBER Cnts...! The NMDP has known about the problem all these yrs!))

Solutions as defined by Dr. Wagner (CORD:USE) regarding cell count increase issue. Not answered is the Q regarding ownership. Privates you own and Publics gov't owns:

1.One promising strategy is the use of double cord blood transplants, or combining two partially HLA-matched UCB units.
((CORD:USE and Cryo-Save public-private model is the double cord blood strategy. Costs $75k for the double gov't owns it.))

2. Another approach is placing the cord blood in expansion culture or exposing the cells to agents that will potentially augment their homing ability so that more stem cells reach the marrow microenvironment.
((HCA, BCBS, CBAI, CordLife Ltd 'Cytomatrix' expansion technology. Costs <$10k and patient owns it.))

3. Others are exploring direct marrow injection as a solution to the delayed recovery time after UCB transplant, he explained.


Dr. Appelbaum said that to accelerate engraftment, physicians at Fred Hutchinson are using in vitro expansion to increase the number of available hematopoietic stem cells.

Increasing UCB hematopoietic stem cells in vitro may also speed the recovery of blood counts in patients, said Dr. Stiff, speaking of research being conducted in the StemEx trial, funded by Gamida Cell-Teva Joint Venture.

Potential Impact in the Transplant Community
Dr. Stiff said he hopes this study will encourage referring physicians to consider the use of umbilical cord blood rather than conventional chemotherapy if an unrelated donor search is taking too long and the patient is in first remission. “There’s still a sense of reluctance by referring physicians and some of my colleagues to use umbilical cord blood,” he said.

((NOT AT HCA HOSPITALS!!! WRITING IS ON THE WALL! CBAI GOES BIG!))

http://journals.lww.com/oncology-times/Fulltext/2010/08100/First_Report_to_Show__Umbilical_Cord_Blood_Is_a.2.aspx

If CBAI has the HCA commercial storage contract we go way BIG! CORD:USE knows it and is reacting to the major infrastructure CBAI is a part of today. Bravo MATT!!!

-Seattle u]Swedish Hospital network owned by HCA-HeathOne LLC
http://www.swedishhospital.com/terms/terms_and_conditions.htm

-Fred Hutchinson Cancer Treatment Center Seattle StemEx The Gamida Cell Ltd.-Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (TEVA) Joint Venture Receives FDA Fast Track Designation for StemEx(R) for Leukemia and Lymphoma
6/21/2010

JERUSALEM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gamida Cell announced today that the Gamida Cell-Teva Joint Venture has received an FDA Fast Track Designation for StemEx, in development as an alternative to a bone marrow transplant for patients with blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma.
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?NewsEntityId=184769

Transplant Program at SCCA Ranked First in One-Year Survival Rates
January 22, 2009

Media Contact:
Dean Forbes, [phone]

Fred Hutchinson Transplant Program at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) was one of only two transplant programs nationwide that consistently outperformed the expected one-year survival rate for unrelated donor transplants, according to an independent report that assessed 122 transplant centers over a five-year period.

The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry examined the survival rates of 8,847 transplants performed to treat blood cancers at U.S. centers in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) network.

The survival data was collected for the years 2002 through 2006 and patient outcomes were measured at the end of 2007. In each of five years, the Hutchinson Center “over performed” in terms of expected one-year survival rates after transplant. Only one other transplant center in the nation matched that record. The data was adjusted for several risk factors that could influence patient outcomes such as type of disease, its stage, patient age and degree of donor cell match.

Stem-cell and bone-marrow transplants are used to treat various leukemias, lymphomas and severe aplastic anemia.

“The study’s findings reflect the extraordinary and longtime dedication by the staff of the Hutchinson Center and SCCA to improve the outcomes of our patients by continually refining transplantation to be a safer and more effective treatment,” said Fred Appelbaum, M.D., executive director of the SCCA and director of the Hutchinson Center’s Clinical Research Division.

((SO WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN FRED APPELBAUM, MD FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER EXPERT SAYS IN VITRO and NOT DOUBLE CORD EXPANSION TECHNOLOGY WORKS BEST AS HE HAS ALREADY DONE? DO DR. KURTZBERG AND DR. WAGNER HAVE A CRACK IN THE ARMOR? YOU DECIDE))

The clinical use of bone-marrow and stem-cell transplantation was first developed at the Hutchinson Center and, subsequently, most of its practitioners were trained there. Patients who choose to have their transplants done at centers that do a high number of such procedures generally have better outcomes.

Required by federal law, the registry’s annual report is designed to provide potential stem-cell transplant recipients, their families and the public with comparative survival rates among the transplant centers in the NMDP network. For more information about NMDP visit www.marrow.org. SCCA is a member of the NMDP network.
http://www.seattlecca.org/in-the-news-detail.cfm?InTheNewsID=56