We are pleased to present to you the excellent work of Professor Mrs. Helen A. Papadaki* and her distinguished collaborators, in the reputable “Journal of Clinical Medicine” in which they present and analyze the perspectives for the use of umbilical cord blood in transplantation as well as the initiatives for an advanced and sustainable public banking program in Greece.
Through this study, Dr. Papadaki’s* group described the mode of operation of the three public umbilical cord blood (UCB) banks in Greece as an example of an orchestrated effort to develop a viable UCB banking system by (a) prioritizing the enrichment of the national inventory by high-quality UCB units from populations with rare human leukocyte antigens (HLA), and (b) deploying novel sustainable applications of UCB beyond HSCT, through national and international collaborations. The way Greece sets up its public umbilical cord blood network could be a good example for other countries, especially ones with high HLA heterogeneity with public UCB banks facing sustainability difficulties and adds value to the international efforts aiming to sustainably expand the public UCB banking system.
* Dr. Helen A. Papadaki is Professor of Haematology, Haematopoiesis Research Laboratory, University of Crete, School of Medicine, Head of the Department of Hematology, Autologous Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Unit and Head of the Public Umbilical Cord Blood Bank of Crete of the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete