Umbilical Cord Blood Could Be Life-Saving For Leukemia Patients, Study Says

A study indicates that umbilical cord blood transplant may be as good or better than the bone marrow or stem cell plants to treat people with leukemia, especially if the donors are not available. Umbilical cord blood may work as alternatives in some cases.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on September 8. 2016. It was led by Dr. Filippo Milano from Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and other colleagues, according to US News Health Care.

"Often, cord-blood transplant is thought to be only as the last resource for patients without donors. But cord blood does not have to be considered only an alternative donor source," said Dr. Filippo Milano. He further said that in centers with experience, it can yield to great outcomes.

The study involved 582 patients with leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. The patients had either a cord-blood transplant or incompatible bone marrow or stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor if there was no unrelated donor available.

The results showed that patients who got cord-blood transplants appeared to live longer compared to those who got non-matching bone marrow or stem cell plants from unrelated donors, according to Dr.Milano. He further explained that their study suggested that overall survival after cord-transplantation was comparable to the one observed after matched unrelated transplants.

The cord blood transplant could be good for a subset of patients, known as "minimal residual disease," which means small amounts of cancer cells remained after the chemotherapy that is needed before transplant. Dr. Milano said that the risk of relapse is very high for them. On the other hand, he said that the risk of relapse was significantly lower in patients receiving cord blood transplants.

Umbilical cord blood is a rich source of stem cells for transplantation. It is accumulated from the umbilical cord and placenta after a baby is delivered. The donated cord blood is then frozen and stored at a cord blood bank for future use. It is discovered that there are advantages for particular patients to have cord blood stem cell transplants as an alternative to transplants with marrow or peripheral blood stem cells.