A toddler with a rare form of cancer has been saved after she became the second person in Britain to be given a transplant using frozen umbilical-cord stem cells, Fox News reported.
Two-year-old Sorrel Mason, from Great Wratting in Suffolk, was given only a 30 percent chance of survival after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
Millions of stem-cell samples across the world were checked after no match was found in Europe. Doctors eventually found a partial match from stem cells taken from an umbilical cord frozen in Tokyo.
Sorrel made a complete recovery after undergoing treatment with the umbilical-cord stem cells from Japan at a Bristol children's hospital last year.
"We've known for some time that leukemia has been successfully treated using adult stem cells," said Dawn Vargo, associate bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action. "This story provides hope that the healing properties of adult stem cells can be harnessed even when the cells have been frozen."
Sorrel's mother, Samantha Mason, 38, thanked doctors for "pulling off a miracle."
