title: Cost-effectiveness of private umbilical cord blood banking.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the cost-effectiveness of private umbilical cord blood banking.
  
  
  METHODS
  A decision-analytic model was designed comparing private umbilical cord blood banking with no umbilical cord blood banking. Baseline assumptions included a cost of $3,620 for umbilical cord blood banking and storage for 20 years, a 0.04% chance of requiring an autologous stem cell transplant, a 0.07% chance of a sibling requiring an allogenic stem cell transplant, and a 50% reduction in risk of graft-versus-host disease if a sibling uses banked umbilical cord blood.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Private cord blood banking is not cost-effective because it cost an additional $1,374,246 per life-year gained. In sensitivity analysis, if the cost of umbilical cord blood banking is less than $262 or the likelihood of a child needing a stem cell transplant is greater than 1 in 110, private umbilical cord blood banking becomes cost-effective.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Currently, private umbilical cord blood banking is cost-effective only for children with a very high likelihood of needing a stem cell transplant. Patients considering private blood banking should be informed of the remote likelihood that a unit will be used for a child or another family member.
  
  
  METHODS
  III.
authors.affiliation: From the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology Division, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: Anjali J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kaimal
authors.forename: Catherine C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Russell K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Laros
authors.forename: Aaron B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Caughey
authors.forename: Yvonne W
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D036101:Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000191:economics*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003663:Decision Trees; D005312:Fetal Blood; D006801:Humans; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D017149:Private Sector / Q000191:economics*; D014015:Tissue Banks / Q000191:economics*; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous / Q000191:economics