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Advances in Cord Blood Transplantation
Bone marrow and stem cell transplants are a life-saving procedure for many patients with blood disorders such as lymphoma and leukemia. However, many patients who could benefit from a transplant do not have a matched bone marrow or stem cell donor.
Umbilical cord blood has been increasingly used as an alternative source of stem cells for transplantation. Cord blood, however, is used more often in children rather than adults because many cord blood units do not have enough stem cells for adults and adolescent patients.
Doctors are testing different methods to make this life-saving therapy available to more patients. One method being studied is called StemEx®.
StemEx® is a technique that increases the number of cord blood stem cells in the laboratory before transplanting the cells into the patient. Higher numbers of these cells may increase the chance for successful engraftment following a cord blood transplant. A study called ExCell® is underway at twenty five transplant centers in the US, Europe and Israel to test the effectiveness of this technique in a larger group of patients.
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Cord Blood Webcast
Dr. Patrick Stiff of Loyola University Medical Center discussed advances in cord blood transplatation and new techniques to make it available to more patients on webcast hosted by BMT InfoNet in September. You can listen to that webcast at www.bmtinfonet.org/webcastcord. |
Who may be eligible for the study?
Patients (ages 12-55 years) with blood disorders including acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), Hodgkin’s disease (HD), or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), who are candidates for a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor may be eligible. Further eligibility criteria will be determined by investigators at each transplant center.
A list of transplant centers who are enrolling patients in the StemEx® study can be found at www.StemExStudy.com.
Other approaches
The StemEx® study is one of several techniques being investigated to make cord blood transplant a viable option for more patients. Another technique involves transplanting adults with more than one unit of cord blood, while a third approach combines a single unit of cord blood with a second unit that has been manipulated in the laboratory to increase the number of stem cells available for transplant.
   
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