[Cord blood transplantation for adults]

Current reports from Europe and USA show that unrelated cord blood transplantation (CBT) gives good results in treating with children with malignancies and other disorders. However, there are not enough patients in the adults to perform a comparison with other stem cell transplantations. In unrelated CBT, HLA disparity is not a limiting factor and the incidence and the severity of acute and chronic GVHD is lower, even in the state of HLA 2 or 3 antigen-mismatched transplant, than in other stem cell transplantation, but the number of cells infused is important. At this stage, unrelated CBT is an optional source of stem cells in adults patients with malignancies who lack HLA compatible donors in bone marrow donor registries. However, the choice of cord blood units containing large number of cells and good disease status at transplantation might improve results.