Posted: Dec 14, 2009

Brandyn Orr was only two years old when he was first diagnosed with leukemia. Determined to do whatever it took to save his life, Brandyn’s family embarked on what would turn out to be an agonizing, three-year course of chemotherapy.

Brandyn’s leukemia eventually went into remission, but just six months after completing chemotherapy, he relapsed. At age 6, Brandyn needed a cord blood stem cell transplant as soon as possible in order to survive. 

Fast forward 10 years, and today Brandyn is a healthy 16-year-old, thanks in large part to a transplant of his younger brother Devyn’s cord blood stem cells.

While doctors are exploring new uses of a child’s own stem cells to treat conditions such as traumatic brain injury, cord blood stem cells have already been used for more than 20 years to treat a number of conditions, including leukemia.

In fact, one of the first uses of stem cells in medicine was to regenerate healthy blood and immune cells in cancer patients after they received chemotherapy. To date, several medical therapies using cord blood stem cells within the family have benefited nearly all biological siblings of the newborn, like Brandyn and Devyn.

Knowing that cord blood may be able to help Brandyn, his mother Susan had banked Devyn’s cord blood when he was born. Brandyn received his cord blood transplant 10 years ago this month and has been cancer-free ever since.

Susan and Brandyn recently told their story on Phoenix, Arizona’s Channel 3 News.  “I highly recommend saving cord blood,” Brandyn says. “Just like it saved my life, it could save your child’s life.”