What is an umbilical cord bone marrow transplant and who is eligible for this procedure?

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PaulODonnellMDPhD (Physician - Oncology - Hematology/Oncology (Verified) ) - 07 / 20 / 2012

The small amount of blood contained within the umbilicus after birth contains blood stem cells with high growth potential and also immature cells of the immune system. Around 1990, it was realized that umbilical cord blood could serve successfully as a donor in allogeneic transplantation. The first umbilical cord blood transplants were performed within family members and some people continue to save cord blood for that purpose. More commonly, women donate their umbilical cord blood to banks where it is typed and frozen for future use by unrelated recipients. Currently, there are about 500,000 units of umbilical cord blood stored in blood banks worldwide. Because the immune cells in a cord blood unit are immature, the degree of matching can be less that perfect without causing severe GvHD. However, because the number of cells present in a cord blood unit is small, transplants were initially restricted to children since the number of cells per kilogram of recipient weight is critical to the “take” of the cells. More recently, it was realized that more than one cord blood unit could be combined to compensate for the cell dosage problem allowing cord blood transplants to be performed in adult patients.
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