About umbilical cord stem cells and improving the efficacy of cord blood transplants

Hi everyone,

There's news about using a system for isolating specific stem cells from cord blood and using these to enhance a standard cord blood transplant, released on Dec 6th 2006.

The trial using Aldagen, a system where stem cells which help neutrophil (white cell) and platelet engraftment are isolated, is being tested to see whether a cord blood transplant, together with these enriched cells, work better than a standard cord blood transplant.

Interestingly, "the trial is being conducted by Joanne Kurtzberg, MD, the Duke University physician who pioneered the use of umbilical cord blood as a treatment for fatal childhood cancers and genetic diseases in 1993."

But does it show improved results when compared to standard cord blood transplants? Find out… .

Preliminary analysis shows that overall survival at 180 days with the new system was 90.9%, compared to 180 days of 57% in a historical compariosn group, the Cord Blood Transplantation Trial (COBLT) study. Also the "cumulative incidence of neutrophil engraftment by day 42 was 90.9% (p=0.001) and platelet engraftment by day 100 was 79.5% (p=0.003)."

“The findings of this study once again show the promise of transplanting stem cells from umbilical cord blood to treat children with resistant cancers and genetic diseases,” said Dr. Kurtzberg. “The infusion of cells enriched with ALDESORT has had no adverse effects and appears to improve the speed and efficacy of cord blood transplantations.”

Duek University is one of the leaders in cord blood research and not only that, the article noted that "Dr. Kurtzberg and her team at Duke University have treated and saved more children with cancers and rare genetic diseases than any other center in the world."

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Tags: baby, umbilical cord blood