Umbilical cord blood transplants improve cancer survival rates across all races

University of Virginia Health SystemOct 1 2024

Patients who receive umbilical cord blood transplants for blood cancers now live equally long regardless of their race, new research from UVA Cancer Center shows.

The findings, from UVA Health's Karen Ballen, MD, and collaborators, suggests that a previously identified survival gap for Black recipients has closed and that overall survival for all recipients has increased. 

The retrospective analysis looked at more than 2,600 adults and children with blood cancers who received cord blood between 2007 and 2017 and found that Asian, Black, Latinx and Caucasian recipients survived equally well.

Black children, however, were more likely to suffer severe "graft-versus-host" disease, a complication of cord blood transplantation that can cause organ damage and severe infections. 

The new insights will improve care for people who need cord blood transplants and speak to how useful the transplants remain for people who do not have a matched donor in their family. 

This retrospective study from the transplant registry showed that outcomes for cord blood transplants are improving for patients of all racial and ethnic backgrounds."

Karen Ballen, MD, UVA Health

About cord blood transplants

While the number of cord blood transplants performed in the United States each year has been declining, cord blood remains a vital lifeline for many patients. Unlike marrow transplants, cord blood does not need to be precisely matched to the recipient. This is particularly helpful for patients of diverse race/ethnicity, who often have trouble finding a fully matched unrelated donor. 

Cord blood is harvested from the umbilical cord and placenta after birth, meaning it is readily available. The researchers found that matched or mismatched cord blood worked equally well for transplant recipients. They also determined matching the race of the patient and donor was less important than the total number of cord blood cells transplanted – the more, the better. (These cells restore the body's ability to produce blood cells after high-dose chemotherapy and other cancer treatments.)

The researchers attribute the improvements in overall survival among cord blood recipients to several factors, including better ability to identify appropriate patients, newer techniques for matching patient and donors, and improved antibiotics and other supportive care.

UVA's stem-cell transplant/cellular therapy program is part of a comprehensive offering of leading-edge cancer care offered at UVA Cancer Center, which has been designated as one of only 57 Comprehensive Cancer centers in the country by the National Cancer Institute. That designation honors elite cancer centers with the most outstanding cancer care and research programs in the nation.

Findings published

The researchers have published their findings in the scientific journal Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. 

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